So Many Things Should Have Been Different
by Brownbug
Summary: Master/ Time Lady OC: "Tejana is now travelling with the Master, despite the odds stacked against them. But when the unexpected return of the drums in his head force them to return to Earth, the past comes back to haunt them. Will it destroy their future...or does the Universe even still have a future?" Third in the 'One Moment in Time' series.
1. Chapter 1

_**WARNING: This fic is a sequel to my two previous stories "One Moment in Time" and "Portal of Eternity". If you haven't read them, this one will not make much sense to you.**_

_**

* * *

**_**_AUTHOR'S NOTE:_**

**_Quite a few people have asked me for a sequel to "Portal of Eternity", so here it is, my "story for another time"..._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything remotely related to it._**

**_Summary: Tejana is now travelling with the Master, despite the odds stacked against them. But when they are forced to return to Earth, the past comes back to haunt them. Will it destroy their future...or does the Universe even still have a future?_**

**_

* * *

_**

**_CHAPTER ONE_**

The well-worn, pebbled path shone white in the pale silver moonlight, winding its way through the dense green forest before finally rising on a gentle gradient to climb the inviting slopes of the hill which loomed like a shadow on the indigo horizon. The air smelt as though a summer storm had just passed over, clean and crisp, pure and still.

The Master walked slowly, listening intently to the sound of the silence. Even though it was over four months since he had lost the drums, he was still not used to the complete and total absence of the relentless rhythm in his mind.

Here, all was peace and tranquillity, spread over the land like a soft, warm blanket. No murmuring breeze disturbed the air, no leaves shifted restlessly in the trees, no small nocturnal animals scuffed subtly in the undergrowth. The only thing he could hear was the sharp crunch of his own footfalls on the loose gravel of the path.

Up ahead, he could see a faint, golden glow illuminating the purple twilight beyond the crest of the hill. He knew what he would see when he reached the top. He had been to this place before. Nevertheless, even knowing what to expect, the scene below still took his breath away.

The pearly path continued to wend its way down the other side, leading on to an immense, flat plain, which stretched almost as far as the eye could see, fully encompassed by a circle of rounded hills, including the one on which he now stood.

Spread endlessly across that great plain, millions upon millions of small flames glimmered, twinkling in the sea of darkness like a lost firmament of heaven. The sight was stunningly, achingly beautiful. It was also incredibly poignant. These were the Plains of Orion. Once a thriving holiday resort, it was now a shrine commemorating the Last Great Time War, a haunting place of ruins and grass and mist. Each of the glowing beacons of light stood for a life lost in the bloody conflict, an everlasting shining memorial representing the people of all the time-sensitive races across the constellations, great and small alike, all equal now in death.

After the end of the War, many pilgrims had come here, to pray and to grieve. But that was long ago. Generations had passed and the War had slipped into legend, as the deeds of the living began to take precedence over the memory of the dead. There were few now who remembered this quiet sanctuary on the Eye of Orion and fewer still who found reason to visit.

But a Time Lord is blessed, or perhaps cursed, with a very long life span and a very good memory. Sometimes the Master's recollections of the War seemed clearer to him than some of the more recent events in his life.

_Maybe I'm getting old, _he thought wryly.

He began to follow the path as it meandered its way through the endless, lambent rows of flame. These candles never went out. They were not made from wax or tallow, but from the wood of the unique trees on the planet Umbeka – the heat from the flame made the wood grow as fast as the fire consumed it and therefore the candle never burned down. And on the Eye of Orion, due to the constant atmospheric bombardment of positive ions, the weather never varied – there were no seasons, no changes in temperature, no rain or wind threatening to extinguish the flickering stars of memory – just day and night, the same over and over again, in an eternal round of unbroken serenity.

At the end of the path, at the heart of the labyrinthine ocean of light, stood a simple stone monolith overlooking the lonely shrine like an ancient guardian. It was engraved with a single, inelaborate inscription. To the Master's eyes, it read in Gallifreyan script - _ Rui nuimhic lhiom. _To a visitor from any other race, the words would read in their own native language, a result of the lexicographic translation circuits incorporated into the monument. However, to all who came, the meaning was the same – _We Remember_.

She was there, as he had known she would be, kneeling at the foot of the rough cenotaph. She was dressed in a simple, white cotton dress, her long black hair curling loosely down her back. For a moment, he just stood quietly and watched her, taking advantage of the fact that she was unaware of his presence. In any other place in the Universe, she would have sensed his approach long ago. But on the Eye of Orion, the positively charged stratosphere acted as a psychic dampener, completely blocking any use of the Gallifreyan sixth sense.

The Master had always been a solitary traveller, wandering the stars alone ever since he had left Gallifrey. Occasionally he had teamed up with different individuals on a short-term basis, usually in an alliance to defeat the Doctor or to take over a planet or something of that nature. Then, of course, there had been Lucy and that one trip to the end of the Universe, but that hardly counted. Other than that, he had never had a companion – had never wanted one. He had always sneered contemptuously at the Doctor for taking on board an endless, ragtag array of assistants and sidekicks. Emotional attachments made you weak and vulnerable. Only hate made you strong. Hate helped you to survive when there was nothing else, the Master was the living proof of that.

But now there was Ana.

At first, he had told himself that he wanted her to spite the Doctor. But that wasn't true – deep down, he knew that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the Doctor and everything to do with Ana herself. Then, he had told himself that it was because their physical connection was so strong. But that wasn't it either, even though the desire he felt for her was more powerful than anything he had ever experienced before.

Then he had taken her to Katria Nova, his favourite place in the Universe, to show her the whirlpools of gold. Sharing it with her, watching her face light up with wonder and delight, the realisation had hit him like a bucket of ice cold water – he had gone and done the one thing he had sworn never to do...he had begun to care for someone.

_Idiot_, he told himself now. _You really are getting old._

Shaking his head as if to dispel his dangerous train of thought, he stepped forward to touch her lightly on the shoulder.

* * *

Tejana was used to running.

Travelling with the Doctor, there had always been plenty of it. So much so that it had become an ongoing joke amongst his companions – if you travel on board the Doctor's TARDIS, you'd better be prepared to run. But it wasn't funny, not really. Oh, you could outrun explosions, monsters, people with guns – that was easy. But the one thing you could never outrun was yourself. As a wise man had once said, _Remember, no matter where you go, there you are. _

The Doctor tried, he tried so hard, always running, filling every second with action, with movement. Travelling from place to place, never stopping, never staying, saving this and saving that, making things right. Always talking, always saying something, anything, to avoid the silence, to hide from the memories. But sometimes, it was not enough. Sometimes, whether you wanted to or not, you had to turn around and face yourself, to see who and what you were, to take responsibility for the things you had done.

And that was why she had asked the Master to bring her here, to the Plains of Orion. Her original intention had been to light individual candles for her own dead. But when it came down to it, she had realised that there were just too many. So instead she had lit just one, the single dancing flame representing everyone she had lost – the entire population of the planet Trion, every man, woman and child ruthlessly exterminated by the Daleks before the War had even officially begun; the thousands of Time Lords who had given their lives in defence of Gallifrey, especially her own elite team, who had fallen honourably at the Battle of the Ramah Phalanx; and lastly, Gallifrey herself, the ancient Shining World of the Seven Systems, dying in a holocaust of fire and brimstone, the ashes of her people scattered now to the four corners of the Universe.

_So many, so very many._

Kneeling here on aching knees in the unbroken silence of the most tranquil place in the Universe, she thought she could hear their voices, their ghosts sighing and weeping in the distance. She could hear the screams as they died, in pain and fear and agony – would always hear them, in her dreams.

She had been here once before, with the fifth Doctor and Tegan and Turlough, long before the War began, when the Eye of Orion had only been a pleasant tourist spot. Gods, she had been so young. _Turlough_ had been so young, just a boy, so different from the strong leader he had eventually become. Tears came to her eyes as she remembered the last, loving look he had given her before the Daleks had executed him right in front of her.

In her mind, she could hear the echo of the Doctor's voice: _I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle. Tired of losing everyone that matters to you. Tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, the only certainty left is that you end up alone._

Here, amidst the shifting sea of glimmering flames, she understood better than ever before what her father had meant.

At that moment, she felt the hand on her shoulder, startling her. Looking up, she saw it was the Master.

"Thought I'd find you here," he said gruffly.

She forced a smile. "You won't be able to sneak up on me once we leave here, you know."

"Getting used to doing without the sixth sense yet?"

Tejana shrugged. She would never admit it to the Master, but at least with the psychic link blocked, she was unable to feel the Doctor's ongoing anger in the back of her mind, which was definitely a big relief.

"Actually, it's really strange. It feels like I've lost an arm or a leg. Funny to think that this is how humans have to manage all the time. It must be so limiting."

"Mmmm, been there, done that, got the T-shirt," the Master said sardonically. "Wouldn't recommend it."

Tejana shook her head ruefully. The Master had never made a secret of the contempt he felt for everything human, even though he had used the Chameleon Arch to become human himself to escape the long reach of the Time War.

"How's the TARDIS?" she asked, purposely changing the subject.

"Not so good," he replied. "She's ancient. She needs a complete systems overhaul. Even with two of us working on her, it's going to take a couple of months. Looks like we'll be here for a while."

She nodded, unworried by the information. Although she was sure it would eventually become very boring, the enforced peace of the Eye of Orion was just what she needed right now.

Then, to her complete astonishment, the Master quietly knelt beside her. Reverence had never been one of his strong points – she found it difficult to believe that even this solemn shrine held any meaning for him. But when she stole a sideways glance at him, there was no mockery in his face. Instead, his eyes were distant, as though he too wandered the far off paths of memory.

Tejana found herself wondering what was going through his mind. She had almost lost him to the Time War too, on the Last Day of Gallifrey, fighting Rassilon in the Heart of The Matrix. To her surprise, the thought was now intolerable. She could not even begin to imagine being without him.

Involuntarily, her hand slipped into his. For a moment, he started, as though he had forgotten she was there. But then his warm fingers curled protectively around hers, her smaller hand swallowed by his larger one.

Suddenly, however, he seemed to stiffen, as though in shock.

"Koschei? What is it?"

"I...no, it's nothing," he answered distractedly. "I...just thought I heard something. But it couldn't have been."

Tejana tightened her grasp on his hand in sympathy, thinking that he too was hearing the murmuring of the sorrowful war-dead of Orion. But as the ghost-laden night deepened around them, she failed to notice the fingers of his other hand compulsively tapping out a deadly four-beat rhythm on his thigh...once, twice, three times...before faltering and relaxing once more into stillness.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: **_

_**Hello to XxCoffee-and-CreamxX, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, Omniac and babybluepineapple - thanks for your reviews and for welcoming me back - nice to have you all on board for another journey, lol!**_

_**Also, a big hi to Pidge - thankyou also for your review, both for Portal of Eternity and this new fic - I'm sorry I can't send you a personal reply, as it looks like you aren't a member, but this will have to do :0)  
**_

* * *

**CHAPTER TWO**

A storm was brewing, the bruise-dark clouds driven violently in from the sea, wildly pursued by the turbulent and capricious winds. In the distance, thunder boomed, rumbling ominously like the chariot wheels of the storm gods leading their legions to war.

Down below, in the grounds of the once-grand mansion, the ragged trees tossed their branches wildly in the rising gale, sending showers of dead leaves skittering across the expanse of matted weeds which had long ago replaced the manicured lawns. Loosely fixed to the massive, elegant front gates, a rusty "For Sale" sign swung back and forth with an eerie, repetitive creaking sound.

The great house seemed to huddle sadly in the wilderness of its unkempt gardens, mourning its lost days of glory. This estate had formerly been the jewel in its owner's empire, one of the most opulent and luxurious stately homes in Britain. But the King was no longer in his counting house and times had changed.

The furniture and artworks had all been sold and the mansion had been put on the market, but there had been no buyers for such an expensive piece of real estate. There was no money for maintenance and so the house and grounds slowly slid further and further into disrepair, lost and forgotten. The caretaker did his best, but there was no way one elderly man could keep out all the tramps and the vandals and the children. In the space of three short years, anything that could be moved had been stolen and most of the windows had been broken. Dust lay thickly on every surface inside the house and in every room countless spiders industriously wove their intricate webs like giant sticky curtains.

The Great Hall, once the show-piece of the mansion, was no exception to the general rule of decay. In fact, if anything, it was worse.

This was a room both the Doctor and the Master would have instantly recognised. Once, it had housed the Immortality Gate, a piece of Vinvocci technology fallen briefly into foolish human hands, which had enabled the Master to temporarily conquer Earth yet again. Here, the Doctor had absorbed a deadly dose of radiation, eventually causing him to regenerate from his tenth into his eleventh incarnation.

The Vinvocci Gate was long gone, every single component confiscated in the utmost secrecy by the Government and entrusted to Torchwood for safekeeping. The magnificent glass ceiling atrium, smashed in spectacular fashion during the Doctor's headlong dive from the hovering Vinvocci spacecraft, had never been replaced. Instead, the vast room lay open to the weather - sun and rain and wind alike - each element wreaking its own measure of ruin.

The scarlet, Italian-made flocked wallpaper hung in shreds from the walls, smeared with rancid black mould from the rising damp and liberally decorated with cobwebs. The opulent velvet drapes had been torn from the large window embrasures, nakedly exposing the jagged, broken panes of glass. The intricately-tiled mosaic floor, which mirrored the circular shape of the shattered dome above, was littered with untidy drifts of shrivelled leaves and piles of useless rubbish.

As the first vicious cuts of lightning slashed across the sky, a solemn, sinister procession of seven shadowy forms entered the room, each dressed in a black acolyte's robe, complete with a concealing hood. The leading figure broke away and mounted the three shallow steps to the dais on which the Immortality Gate had once stood and then turned to face the room. The remaining six figures, each carrying a lit black candle, spread themselves evenly around the mosaic circle patterned on the floor, moving in a macabre silence. In the centre of the circle stood a small stone plinth, which had once held a rare Grecian sculpture. Now it supported an ancient clay bowl.

Overhead, the dark storm clouds began to amass above the mansion, circling the gaping atrium in an almighty, unnatural dance of power.

As if on cue, the cowled figure on the dais pushed back her hood, revealing the delicate, arrogant features of a young black woman with closely-cropped hair. For a moment, Abigail Naismith, High Priestess of the Cult of Saxon, gazed out over the ruined room which had once held her hope for immortality. Then, her eyes hard with grim determination, she raised her arms ceremonially above her head.

"We are the Cult of Saxon," she said in a clear, penetrating voice.

"_We are the Cult of Saxon_," her disciples echoed.

"We watch and we wait. We never give up the faith," she continued.

"_We watch and we wait. We never give up the faith_," they repeated.

Imperiously, Abigail swept down the stairs to the centre of the candle-lit ring of people, ritualistically approaching the plinth.

"Long we have been faithful. Long we have waited," she cried passionately. "Tonight we shall be rewarded for our constancy. Tonight...our glorious Master returns!"

With a dramatic flourish, she placed a small, shining item in the bottom of the bowl.

"_All praise be to the Master_!" the acolytes moaned in ecstatic devotion.

Abigail carefully retraced her steps to the dais, standing well clear of the ceremonial circle. She was the High Priestess of the Cult of Saxon, but she was also a very calculating woman. She had met the Master before. She had a very good idea that those who carried out the resurrection instructions in the Secret Books of Saxon were not intended to survive. She had no intention of becoming a casualty – there were plenty of other fools around to do that for her.

"As it is written, let us pour out the Potions of Life," she intoned.

"_All praise be to the Master_!"

Four of the disciples stepped forward, each holding a crude, earthenware urn. One by one, they solemnly decanted the liquid contents into the vessel on the plinth, a viscid, blue, opaque substance which bubbled and seethed as it struck the object in the bottom of the bowl.

"Now, Mr Danes," Abigail commanded, her eyes fixed on the tallest of her followers. "Anoint the catalyst."

"_All praise be to the Master_!"

The man pushed back his hood, revealing the cold, proud face of the Naismith family's former servant, Edward Danes. He advanced towards the plinth, holding in his hand what appeared to be a small turkey bone. When the butler had garnered this peculiar souvenir on a whim from the alien visitor's dinner plate three years ago, he had never dreamed of the greater purpose to which it would eventually be put, until Abigail had recruited him to join the Cult of Saxon and he had been permitted to read the secret scriptures.

Above his head, the lightning seared through the gathered storm clouds in a savage arc. Reverently, he dropped the bone fragment into the bowl. Immediately, the fulminating liquid seemed to leap upwards, diffusing into a furious, spinning vortex of light, spiralling toward the sky as three scorching bolts of lightning hammered down into the whirlwind.

All six of the acolytes fell to their knees, as sparkling ribbons of white life energy began to be sucked from their bodies, flowing upwards into the moiling tornado of light.

"Now...now he rises!" Abigail screamed exultantly. "Give yourselves, my brothers and sisters...give yourselves so that the Master may live!"

And in the very centre of the churning vortex, encircled by a halo of lightening, a dark shape began to form, summoned from the abode of the dead and stretching new-born into the world, a harbinger of chaos and destruction.

* * *

The Doctor was depressed, there was no other way to describe it. Nothing seemed to be going right lately. He had begun this new regeneration with such high hopes. It was a fresh start, a chance to put behind him some of the people he had lost and things he had done. But it seemed that was not to be. Still the losses kept coming, still the guilt kept mounting. Because, some days, no matter what he did, everybody did not live.

He looked down at the little red box in his hand, his eyes blurred with grief and self-recrimination.

Rory Williams – sincere, honest, awkward, clumsy, bumbling Rory – killed by a Silurian laser blast meant for the Doctor, his body lost forever in a crack in Time, his memory erased from the minds of everyone he had ever known, including his fiancee, Amy Pond. In all the Universe, the only person left to mourn for Rory Williams, the only person to remember that he ever existed, was the Doctor.

Gazing at the box which held Amy's engagement ring, the Doctor could hear the voice of Davros echoing hatefully in his ear.

_How many more? Just think, how many have died in your name? The Doctor...the man who keeps running, never looking back, because he dare not, out of shame..._

Putting the box back in his jacket pocket, he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to ease the thumping headache pounding in his brain. At the back of his consciousness, he could feel the gaping space which had recently replaced his psychic link with his daughter. Again, he probed at it with his mind, like a child poking at a loose tooth with his tongue, only to find that nothing had changed. It was still empty. There was no trace of her. A sick feeling of worry clawed at him. The only other time she had completely disappeared off his radar was when she had vanished into E-Space and he had thought she had been killed in the Time War. And since it was unlikely that she was back in E-Space...

Hurriedly, he turned his mind away from the painful thought. Surely the Master wouldn't...couldn't have...but then again, there wasn't much the Master wouldn't do, was there? Especially if he thought it could hurt the Doctor.

Just then, Amy appeared in the console room, interrupting his anxious reverie.

"So, Doctor...where to next?" she asked cheerfully.

"What?" he snapped, his voice unintentionally abrupt.

"I said, where...to...next?" she repeated, slowly and deliberately, as though he was deaf.

The Doctor took a deep breath. There was nothing he could do for Tejana. He had no way of finding out what had happened, so he could only hope that there was some simple explanation for the loss of their psychic link. And right now, he had a responsibility to Amy, to help guide her and support her through her unconscious grieving for Rory.

"How about...Paris? I was thinking - the Musee d'Orsay," he suggested. "They have a rather spectacular Vincent van Gogh exhibition on at the moment, I believe. You up for it, Pond?"

"Sounds great!" she enthused. "I love van Gogh's work!"

The Doctor was about to reply, when suddenly he was struck by an overwhelming giddiness. For a brief moment, he swayed drunkenly on his feet as the console room seemed to whirl madly around him, only to feel Amy catch him by the arm.

"Maybe the question should be, are you up for it?" she said in concern. "Are you OK? What happened?"

"I'm fine," he answered breathlessly, a frown creasing his face. "It's just...someone is tampering with the time lines. Somewhere, there has just been a massive change in history."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily...since the Time War, things tend to be a lot more flexible, history can be rewritten a lot more easily," he answered thoughtfully. "Even so, the only being capable of making a change large enough for me to sense is another Time Lord."

"But...the only other Time Lords left are Tejana and the Master," Amy said, confused. "Why would they be trying to change history?"

"Exactly," the Doctor replied grimly, his worry escalating still further. "Why would they?"


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note: Hi to babybluepineapple, my sole reviewer for the last chapter, thanks for the encouragement (I must have bored everyone else, lol!)**_

_**

* * *

**_**CHAPTER THREE**

By the time the rosy fingers of dawn crept tentatively over the horizon, Tejana was already awake. A bubble of excitement fizzed in her chest. _This is how human children must feel on Christmas morning_, she thought happily. She didn't really know about that – Gallifrey had never had anything like Christmas. Or any other occasion that could remotely be called fun. Like everything else in the restrictive Time Lord society, Gallifreyan festivals had always been full of pomp and ceremony and long, dry speeches from crusty old councillors.

She stirred impatiently in the blankets, only to feel the Master's arms tightening around her in his sleep. They were lying on the ground in a pretty forest glade, the glowing remains of a camp-fire close by. She looked up at the fading night sky. Sleeping out under the stars with the Master like this reminded her of the time they had spent together in The Matrix – although, on the Eye of Orion there would be no rain or snow or thunderstorms or any of the other bizarre weather they had experienced back then. In a way, Tejana wished there _would_ be a dramatic weather change – that at least might break the monotony. As she had originally suspected, after three months of unchanging sameness, the peace and quiet of Orion had definitely become incredibly tedious.

That was why today promised to be so exciting. The TARDIS overhaul was finally finished. She and the Master had been camping outside for two nights while the block transfer computation took effect and the interior architecture was reconfigured. Today they were going to see the results.

It had been a long and intensive process. The ancient time machine had certainly been overdue for a service, by several thousand years. The Master had been an exacting overseer, reviewing every component, every calculation, in minute detail. After many years travelling with the Doctor, Tejana was used to an extremely haphazard and spontaneous attitude to maintenance. The Master's more disciplined and meticulous approach had therefore come as a bit of a shock. For a man who generally took pleasure in spreading chaos and discord wherever he went, it was amazing how much he prized order and organisation on board his own ship.

Suddenly, she felt his hands moving over her naked skin in a long, slow caress and she realised he was awake.

"Wriggling about like that isn't going to make the sun come up any faster," he murmured sleepily. "If you wanted help to pass the time, you should just have said."

Before she could say anything, he deftly rolled her beneath him and began to kiss her insistently, his tongue deep in her mouth, his hands sliding to hold her wrists firmly above her head. Tejana shuddered in helpless response and arched towards his touch, all thought of the TARDIS slipping to the back of her mind, as a different sort of anticipation filled her, hot and urgent.

Christmas might be one exception, but there were some recreational activities that Time Lords would always be much better at than humans.

* * *

Things being what they were, the sun of Orion was fairly high in the sky by the time they eventually stood outside the TARDIS. The exterior of the time machine had metamorphosed upon their arrival on the Eye of Orion, taking on the semblance of a large oak tree and blending into the surrounding forest perfectly. Tejana was still getting used to the concept of a functioning Chameleon Circuit. Centuries of zipping around the Universe in a blue police box tended to make the fluctuating appearance of the Master's TARDIS somewhat disconcerting for her.

"Well, are you going in? Or are you waiting for me to carry you over the threshold?" the Master asked dryly.

She shot him a caustic look. "Hardly," she retorted. "Wouldn't want you to throw your back out."

He laughed mockingly and, before she could protest, lifted her easily into his arms and carried her into the TARDIS.

"Oh, very funny...not," she said crossly, as he set her none-too-gently on her feet.

But then she got her first look at the new control room and she caught her breath in wonder. Like the Doctor's TARDIS, it now had three levels - the lower area under the console, the glass platform which supported the console itself and the upper level leading to the interior rooms. But there the resemblance ended. The Doctor's TARDIS décor was all about bright colours and sparkling lights and polished copper walls. The walls of the Master's TARDIS were formed from a crystal lattice of aragonite, giving them a translucent mother-of-pearl lustre, the light reflecting and refracting gently from the nacreous surface in an ever-changing iridescent glow. Six graceful pillars crafted from transparent selenite crystal rose from the corners of the hexagonal console platform to support the roof, meeting at the top of the slender, elegant glass time-rotor column. The room was stunningly beautiful.

"Well, what do you think?" the Master enquired complacently, clearly pleased by her arrested expression. "Good, isn't it?"

"It's...absolutely amazing!" she replied in an awestruck voice. "You really are a genius."

Not one for false modesty, he merely gave a small nod, accepting her words as his due.

"And I've got something else for you," he added briefly, handing her a slim gold and silver device. "Laser screwdriver...like I've said before, who'd have sonic? You were pretty handy with mine back on Gallifrey...I thought you should have one of your own."

Tejana looked down at the screwdriver. For a moment, she had a wild urge to laugh. The gift was so typical of the Master. Other men might give their woman a bunch of flowers...the Master gave her a lethal killing device. All the same, it was exquisitely made, not as bulky as his own, more delicately crafted to fit her smaller hand perfectly.

"It's got all the same functions as your sonic, but with the laser technology as well," he told her.

"Thank you, Koschei," she said softly, thinking a little sadly of the old sonic screwdriver in her jacket pocket. It was the same one the Doctor had given to her centuries ago, when she had first run away from Gallifrey to travel with him. It was ancient and battered now, somewhat temperamental and unreliable. She had been meaning to ask the Doctor for a new one for a while, but had sentimentally kept putting it off. Now it looked like the decision had been taken out of her hands.

"So...where are we going next?" he asked, leaping up the stairs to the console. "The Diamond Coral Reefs on Kataa Flo Ko? The garden planet of Chumeria? The second moon of Ororous, to see the famous carmine ocean?"

"Anywhere but here," Tejana said fervently. "Believe me, I've had enough of the Eye of Orion to last me for quite some time!"

* * *

Wearily, Captain Jack Harkness sat down on a park bench, a newspaper-wrapped packet of chips in his hand. Sometimes he thought the world was going mad. The dwindling Torchwood team had been nearly run off their feet in the last few months. Several strange "ghost" sightings had been reported in different locations all over Britain, but by the time Jack and his team arrived, there was never anything to find. People were scared. Prime Minister Denise Riley had been on the phone to him three times already that week. Jack didn't believe in ghosts, but for now he was at a loss to explain the sightings in any other way.

Just then, his mobile phone rang.

"Yeah, Gwen?" he answered tersely. Then, after listening for a moment, he said, "No, I can't, I'm caught up here. And Mickey is already on assignment too. Yeah, I know that, but I can't be in two places at once. Get on to Martha, would you, see if we can borrow her for a bit? Yeah, thanks, talk to you later."

Putting his phone back in his pocket, Jack sighed deeply. There was no doubt about it, Torchwood was stretched much too thin these days. There was no avoiding it, he was going to have to recruit some more staff, whether he liked it or not. For a moment, his mind wandered to Tejana. Her departure had left a massive hole in his professional as well as his personal life. For a while he had clung tenaciously to the hope that she would change her mind and come back, but it didn't look like that was going to happen any time soon.

Finishing his chips, he tossed the newspaper in the bin and resolutely strode away, his long coat flapping in the breeze. Behind him, yesterday's headline stared up at the sky in bold black print:

**NAISMITH DAUGHTER RESTORES FAMILY FORTUNE.**

**

* * *

**Something was wrong – very, very wrong. Tejana sat bolt upright in bed, her breathing laboured as though she had been running. The dark pressed about her, the TARDIS still deep within the sleep cycle.

She listened intently, but there was only silence. There had been a sound, she was sure, something so dreadful it had dragged her from sleep. It was gone now, but the sense of it still lingered inaudibly, like something poisonous in the air.

Had it been a nightmare? Once upon a time, those had been all too common, but since she had been travelling with the Master, her sleep had been inexplicably peaceful, almost as though the closeness of the other Time Lord had cancelled out the negative energy from her memories. It was an unlooked-for gift, but one which reassured her that she was doing the right thing, against every logical argument.

The Master! Her hand shot to the other side of the bed. It was empty, the sheets cold. She felt a surge of fear. She still didn't...couldn't...fully trust him, as much as she wanted to. There was a lot of water under the bridge. He knew that she still found it difficult, but it didn't seem to bother him. The one thing she did know for sure was that he would never intentionally harm her. Few people could say that about the Master.

And now? This strange feeling in the air and he was gone.

She slipped from the bed and wound a sheet around her naked body before quietly making her way to the TARDIS console room. He was there, sitting in the dim light emanating from the instruments. He was dressed only in a pair of hastily pulled-on trousers, his head resting in his left hand, his elbow supported by the TARDIS console.

Standing in the doorway, Tejana felt a split second of pure relief.

_He just couldn't sleep_, she thought, _no big emergency after all._

But then she heard it and her blood turned to ice in her veins.

_Tap-tap-tap-tap!_

_Tap-tap-tap-tap!_

The fingers of his right hand were tapping on the console, a simple, repetitive, terrifying rhythm.

_Tap-tap-tap-tap!_

_Tap-tap-tap-tap!_

A small sound, maybe, innocuous to most – but it instantly brought Tejana's universe to a screaming halt.

"No!" she gasped. "No, it isn't possible!"

His head shot up, his face strained. Even in the poor light, she could read the conflict in his expression, the war against the returning insanity which was already threatening to consume him.

"They're back," he said hoarsely, his fingers still beating out the dreaded tattoo. "The drums are back."

Louder and louder and louder.

_TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!_

_TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!_

_TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!_

Tejana ran down the stairs to him and seized his hand. "Stop it! STOP IT!"

He grabbed her by the shoulders, his face close to hers. "It started as soon as we left the Eye of Orion, as soon as we passed beyond the psychic barrier. It's so strong, Ana, worse than ever before. It hurts so much!"

She stared at him in horror, the implications churning and tumbling in her mind.

"Koschei, it isn't possible. Rassilon is gone. He died on the Last Day of the Time War. There's nothing left – the Time Lords, Gallifrey, all of it, all gone!"

"_Listen _to me, Ana!" the Master gritted out. "What happened to the White Point Star? Did the Doctor ever mention it to you? _Did he ever tell you what happened to it_?"

Tejana's eyes widened, the awful truth suddenly sinking in. The White Point Star. An artefact of Gallifrey. An artefact of _Rassilon_, still on Earth.

"The Doctor destroyed the machine," the Master continued. "But the Star is indestructible."

"It must have been left," she answered, fear welling up in her throat. "It must have been left in the mansion."

"If someone picked it up, it could easily be used to resurrect Rassilon," he said bitterly. "It was the diamond from the Lord President's sceptre – all his power, all his authority resided there. More than enough to bring him back, if it was done properly."

He jumped to his feet and began to pace, cradling his head in his hands, trying to shut out the painful, insistent drum beat, trying to _think_!

"But who?" he demanded. "Who would be able to do it? There are only three Time Lords left. It wasn't you or I and the Doctor would never do it. So who on that backward planet would have the knowledge to perform a Time Lord resurrection ceremony?"

And then Tejana knew, in a flash of insight which left her sick to her stomach.

"The Cult of Saxon," she whispered.

He whirled around in shock. "_What_?"

"There are still some of them left," she explained rapidly. "They still have the Secret Books of Saxon, which you left for them with full instructions for _your _resurrection. Their High Priestess is Abigail Naismith."

"Who?"

Tejana clicked her tongue impatiently. The Master never bothered to retain much information about humans, unless it was going to benefit him in some way.

"The daughter of the man who owned the mansion, Joshua Naismith."

"Abigail...bringer of joy," the Master muttered sarcastically, suddenly remembering the smug little rich girl. "The girl who wanted immortality."

"Apparently, she used her family connections to get out of jail. Her father is still confined, their little empire is in ruins. She believes you can get it all back for them, when you return again," Tejana told him. "She's really into all that witchcraft mumbo-jumbo."

"So if she has the White Point Star..._and _the Books of Saxon..." he said slowly.

Tejana's face paled, her cheeks ashen. "Oh stars...she thinks she's bringing _you _back, but instead..."

"Rassilon!" the Master finished grimly.

"But...the catalyst? I don't know much about resurrections, but won't they need Rassilon's biometric signature?"

"No, because the White Point Star is of Gallifreyan origin – there's no need for a biometric signature," he replied briefly. "The Star is enough on its own. Whatever they use, the result will still be the same."

Just then, a sonorous clanging began, deep within the bowels of the TARDIS.

The Master groaned, running a hand jerkily through his blonde hair. "The cloister bell. This just keeps getting better and better. All I need now is a strings section and I'll have a full orchestra in my head!"

"We have to get back to Earth," Tejana said urgently. "We have to stop this from happening. If he manages to smash open the Time Lock, all hell is going to break loose."


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Big thanks to KoscheithePianist, Omniac, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, babybluepineapple and Xx-Coffee-and-Cream-xX for your reviews – totally relieved I haven't bored you all to death yet! Hope you all have a magnificent weekend!**_

_**

* * *

**_**CHAPTER 4**

The Master immediately began to adjust the TARDIS drive systems in preparation for yet another journey to twenty first century Earth, while Tejana programmed in the navigational coordinates for the Naismith mansion. In the background, the cloister bell continued to toll with an ear-splitting resonance. Tejana found time to wish that the Master had thought to install an "off" switch for the alarm – _OK, the Universe was in danger, they got it, now SHUT THE HELL UP_!

Just then she felt the other Time Lord staring at her and she looked around at him sharply.

"What?"

"I never thought I'd say this," he answered wryly. "But you'd better get some clothes on."

Looking down at herself, she realised she was still dressed in a bed sheet. Swearing under her breath, she turned on her heel and headed back up the stairs to the bedroom to pull on some jeans, a shirt, her jacket and some trainers. Glancing around, she grabbed the Master's red undershirt, black hoodie and boots – after all, it wasn't as if he was currently dressed for saving the Universe either! She was just heading back to the door when the TARDIS seemed to shudder violently, as though a giant hand was enthusiastically shaking it. All around her, the room seemed to distort. The dimensions were suddenly wrong, expanding and contracting simultaneously in a crazy, warped distension of reality.

Fighting back nausea, Tejana forced her way through the bewildering haze of temporal distortion, back down the stairs to the console platform. The Master was desperately working at the instruments, trying to regain control of the TARDIS.

"What's happening?" she screamed, clinging to the console as the shuddering increased.

"We're in vortex crisis!" he yelled back. "There's some kind of anomalous temporal instability at the destination coordinates – the frame of reference keeps shifting. She can't lock on long enough to materialise and I can't alter the coordinates."

Tejana felt a moment of pure fear. If the TARDIS couldn't obey the instruction to materialise, she would simply continue to spin faster and faster in the time vortex until she shook herself, and her hapless passengers, into a billion pieces.

"What do we do?"

"When I say so, shut down the navigational system," the Master ordered, his face taut with concentration. "If I can use the auxiliary power to boost the dimensional stabilisers and override the materialisation circuit, I might be able to bring her in manually."

Tejana's eyes widened. She had never heard of anyone manually materialising a TARDIS out of the Time Vortex before. The plan was completely insane. If it went wrong, they could end up anywhere – the Void, E-Space or possibly somewhere even worse. But right now, their options appeared to be fairly limited. If they didn't do something soon, the TARDIS was going to self-destruct in a spectacular fashion. Without arguing, she struggled across to the navigational terminal and began to obediently key in the shut-down sequence.

"Three...two...one...NOW!" the Master shouted.

At her command, the navigational systems blinked off-line and the Master was left in manual control of the ship's flight. His hands moved like lightning over the controls, deftly manipulating the helmic regulator and the dimensional stabiliser lever, forcing the TARDIS to materialise through the temporal boundaries of the Time Vortex. A spinning kaleidoscope of every colour in the spectrum seemed to bleed through the walls like an insane psychotropic hallucination. A roaring, rushing sound filled Tejana's ears and her lungs felt as though they were being crushed inside her body from the steadily increasing atmospheric pressure.

"HOLD ON!" the Master roared.

Then there was a massive, bone-jarring impact. All the lights went dark and at long last the cloister bell fell silent.

* * *

"Ana? Where are you? Are you all right?"

There was a dim glow in the darkness. Dazed from the crash, Tejana blinked confusedly, finally realising that the light came from the Master's laser screwdriver.

"I'm here," she replied unsteadily. "Still breathing, I think."

"Breathing's good," he said shortly.

In the pale light, she could see a scarlet ribbon of blood running down his face from a nasty gash on his temple.

"Koschei, your head...are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," he replied, wiping the blood away with his hand.

"Where are we?"

"No idea. All the systems are dead."

Tense with apprehension, Tejana located the stairs leading down to the TARDIS entry and crawled towards them, unwilling to trust her wobbly legs. Reaching the doors, she levered herself to her feet and flung them wide. For a moment, to her immense alarm, all she could see was more inky blackness. Then, as her vision sharpened, she realised that this was not the yawning emptiness of the Void – it was the ordinary, blessedly normal darkness of night. Up above, a very familiar moon smiled down on her, surrounded by an equally familiar arrangement of twinkling stars. Tejana took a deep breath, blissfully recognising the diffuse conglomeration of human smells.

"Ohhhhh, twenty-first century Earth!" she cried exultantly, once again amazed at his undeniable technical genius. Even the Doctor would have had difficulty performing the miracle landing the Master had just pulled off. "You did it, Koschei! You really did it!"

But the Master already had his head under the console, busy prying the inspection panels away from the base. "We're not out of the woods yet," he said harshly. "The dimensional stabilisers have overloaded. If I can't restore the hyperbolic equilibrium, the TARDIS could still explode."

Tejana frowned, hearing his words but not really taking them in, still absorbed in the environment outside the doors. This was Earth, no doubt about it, but it didn't feel right. She could sense the temporal distortion blighting the atmosphere like an infected wound.

"It was here," she said softly, her eyes closed. "Nearby. This is where they brought him back. I can feel it. That's why the TARDIS couldn't materialise here. Somehow they've corrupted the causal nexus."

Slowly, she took two steps forwards, as though drawn inexorably towards the unsettling feeling.

"Ana! Where the hell are you going?" the Master demanded.

She looked back at him. "We have to find out what's going on. I'm going to go and have a look."

"Oh no, you're not!" he growled. "I didn't go to all the trouble of saving you from Rassilon in The Matrix just for you to go and throw yourself right back into his clutches again!"

"Koschei, we don't have time for this!" she retorted impatiently. "If we're going to have any chance of stopping him, we have to get some answers. You can't leave the TARDIS right now, so it has to be me!"

He was about to answer when there was a loud bang from under the TARDIS console and a series of sparks arced violently across the instrument panel.

"All right!" he snapped, hurriedly turning back to the gaping inspection hatch. "Go – but be careful and don't get into any trouble!"

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Tejana had to hide a small smile. If the Master ever knew just how much he sounded like the Doctor at that moment, he would be completely furious.

* * *

Once she left the safety of the TARDIS, she almost had second thoughts. They had landed in a small clearing in a heavily wooded area. The trunks of the trees pressed closely together and the ground was overgrown with a tangled mess of weeds and creepers. A heavy bank of cloud had drifted across the sky, hiding the friendly faces of the moon and the stars, while an eerie wind gusted mournfully through the tree branches. The place was undeniably creepy.

Worst of all, though, was the overwhelming feeling of aberration. The place was just _wrong_. It made her feel sick to the stomach.

_Why, oh why, can't humans learn not to meddle? s_he wondered miserably.

She knew that this was partially her own own fault. Twice now, she had underestimated the Cult of Saxon, writing them off as a bunch of crack-pots instead of recognising the very real danger they represented. Firstly, she had ignored their accurate prophecy of the Master's return, trapped by the immortal Eternals on board their ship. Secondly, when Abigail Naismith had escaped during the UNIT raid on the Cult Headquarters, Tejana had carelessly told Jack to let the woman go instead of insisting that she was hunted down and imprisoned. Two very costly mistakes, which Tejana now regretted deeply.

Reaching into her pocket, she drew out her own newly-acquired laser screwdriver, using the Master's gift as a torch to light her way. She knew the Doctor would never approve, but somehow it was comforting to know she had a weapon to fall back on if required. Then again, the Doctor would not approve of most of the things she had been doing lately, so one more instance probably didn't make a lot of difference.

Warily, she made her way through the woods, using her senses to home in on the source of temporal distortion. At last, she emerged from the trees on to what had once been a broad expanse of sweeping green lawn, but was now a thigh-high wilderness of rampantly growing weeds. Up ahead, in the intermittent moonlight, she could see a gracious stone manor house, which she assumed was the Naismith mansion. It loomed ominously in the night, an oppressive, powerful shadow.

Somehow, it was more nerve-racking crossing this relatively open space than it had been coming through the gloomy woods. There was no camouflage available, leaving her exposed and vulnerable, the blank windows of the huge mansion seeming to stare at her like a hundred watchful eyes. The journey seemed to take forever, the thorny undergrowth clutching at her jeans as though determined to slow her progress.

At last, she reached the house and began to skirt around the walls, looking for the stables and kitchen yard she vaguely recalled from the vision the Doctor had shown her of the events which had taken place here at Christmas three years ago. The sense of temporal deviation grew more and more repulsive, confirming that she was very close to what she was seeking.

After some searching, she found the small cellar door the Doctor and Wilf had used to gain access to the mansion. The door was unlocked. Cautiously, Tejana entered, holding the laser screwdriver high as she followed the narrow, cobwebbed passage which led to the basement beneath what had once been the Gate Room.

However, just as she reached the archway opening into the basement, a hideously bright light blazed out of nowhere, shining directly into her eyes and effectively blinding her.

"Hold it right there or I'll shoot!" ordered a clear, crisp voice.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Big hi to Strange and Sad Angel, nice to have you back!**_

_**Also, thanks to Omniac and babybluepineapple for your reviews!**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER FIVE**

Blinking rapidly, Tejana automatically raised her arm to shield her eyes against the blinding white light.

"Tejana? Oh my God, is that you?"

All at once, the dazzled Time Lady realised that she knew the disembodied voice. "Martha? Martha Jones?"

Immediately, the brilliant beam of light dropped to the ground, allowing Tejana to gradually regain her vision. Sure enough, she recognised the familiar figure standing nearby. Dr Martha Smith-Jones was dressed in a well-fitting black UNIT combat suit, her dark hair tightly scraped back into an efficient knot at the back of her head. She was holding a lethal-looking semi-automatic pistol and a large torch.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" Martha cried, enveloping her friend in a warm hug.

Tejana hugged her back. "It's good to see you too."

She had always got on extremely well with Martha during her travels in the Doctor's TARDIS. In fact, she had almost been a little bit disappointed when the Doctor had not returned Martha's obvious romantic feelings. Martha would have been good for the Doctor. She was attractive, friendly, intelligent, brave – all the things the Doctor needed in a long-term companion. But you couldn't always choose who you fell in love with. Tejana understood that better than most. Actually, in view of her current living arrangements, she was slightly surprised at Martha's enthusiastic greeting. Given the almost pathological – if understandable - hatred that Martha and her family felt towards the Master after the events of The Year That Never Was, she would have expected a much more hostile reception.

"So Jack managed to get hold of you after all?" Martha asked happily.

Tejana frowned. "Jack?"

"Isn't that why you're here? Didn't Jack send you?"

"Not exactly. I'm doing some investigating of my own," Tejana said cautiously. "Why are you here? What's Torchwood's interest in this place?"

"There's been a lot of weird stuff going on lately. Ghost sightings all over Britain," Martha said seriously. "People returning from the dead, strange creatures, even phantom places."

"Phantom places? What does that mean?"

"Well, for example, this tourist got lost in the mist down in Cornwall and he came across this pub. So he went in and sat in front of the fire and had a drink and a chat to the locals. Then, after he left, he found his way back to the village he was staying at and told his story to some of the villagers. Turns out, that pub burned down fifty years ago."

"And this place?"

"About three months ago, there was this crazy storm here, thunder and lightning, swirling clouds, all that – but _only _over this mansion, as though it was focussed on this one place. Since then there have been a number of the weird ghost sightings around the local area. So Torchwood got called in to investigate," Martha explained. "They're even more short-staffed since you left, so Jack seconded me from UNIT to help out."

"Three months ago," Tejana murmured worriedly. "Stars, even longer than I thought."

Then she glanced sharply at Martha, puzzled afresh by the other woman's matter-of-fact reference to her departure from Torchwood. Still no mention of the Master – it was very strange.

"Martha, what exactly did Jack tell you about me leaving Torchwood?"

Martha shrugged. "Not a lot. Just that you got itchy feet and decided to go travelling. I just assumed you took off with the Doctor again."

Tejana nodded slowly, a feeling of relief flooding through her. So Martha didn't know – that certainly explained a lot! Probably best to keep it that way, if at all possible. Tejana could definitely do without the inevitable arguments and recriminations which would certainly follow if she found out.

"Why?" Martha asked suspiciously. "Is there something he _should_ have told me? You two didn't have a fight, did you?"

"No, not at all," Tejana replied evasively, beginning to walk briskly towards the stairs leading up to the erstwhile Gate Room . "But I can't believe he sent you, on your own, to investigate a haunted house in the middle of the night. Don't you humans watch enough horror movies? _Not _a good idea!"

Martha laughed. "What about Time Lords? After all, _you're _here by yourself investigating a haunted house in the middle of the night!"

"Well, I wouldn't be, if the TARDIS hadn't..."

Abruptly, Tejana's voice trailed away, realising she had said too much. But it was too late, Martha had already picked up on her words.

"The TARDIS? So the Doctor's here somewhere too?" she said, her face lighting up. "Jack said he'd regenerated. I can't wait to see him again."

Tejana winced inwardly. "Quite honestly, I have no idea exactly where he is," she answered, with perfect truth. "But I'm sure he'll turn up at some stage. Now are you coming to check this place out or what?"

Together, they climbed the stairs, with Martha using her torch to illuminate the way. However, once they reached the Great Hall, there was no further need for artificial light. The clouds had moved away from the moon and a magnificent flood of luminescence poured through the shattered ceiling atrium, bathing the room in a pearly light.

"Wow!" Martha breathed. "Just look at this place. Who would want to live in a gigantic museum like this?"

"People with more money than sense, believe me," Tejana said tartly, thinking bitterly of Abigail Naismith.

Martha moved forward, heading towards the mosaic circle in the middle of the floor. The once beautiful tiles now looked as though something huge had been dropped on them from a great height, brutally smashing the delicate tessellated pattern. Six deep, dark cracks radiated out from the centre of the circle, like spokes on a wagon wheel. Each crack terminated at the outer circumference, each spot marked with what appeared to be a ragged mound of black cloth.

"What _are_ these things?" Martha muttered, kicking at one of the mounds with the toe of her boot.

Gripped by a sudden premonition, Tejana cried, "Martha, don't!"

But it was too late. The dark object flopped over obscenely, the tattered cloth falling aside to reveal a grinning, shrunken skull, covered in blackened and shrivelled skin, still attached by a few strips of desiccated flesh to an equally mummified body.

Martha recoiled in horror, her breath hissing through her teeth in shock.

"Oh my God!" she cried. "What happened to them?"

Tejana walked over to join her and crouched beside the hideous corpse, her face tight with disgust. "They've been drained of their life essence. That's what you get when you mess with things you don't understand."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this is the remains of a Time Lord resurrection ceremony," Tejana said angrily. "These idiots, in their ignorance, have brought Rassilon, the Time Lord President, back from death and got themselves killed in the process."

"Another Time Lord?" Martha replied in bewilderment. "But isn't that a good thing?"

Tejana sighed. "Why does everyone always say that? No, it's not a good thing, because Rassilon wants to bring back all the other Time Lords and to do that, he has to break the Time Lock the Doctor put on the Time War. And if he breaks the Time Lock, he will destroy the Universe and most likely Time itself."

Martha swallowed convulsively. "OK, you're right, that's probably not a good thing. So, what do we do to stop him?"

"Right now, I'm not entirely sure," Tejana responded bleakly.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the laser screwdriver once more, setting it to scanner mode. The emitter extended with fierce click, the triple-section tip sliding smoothly into place. Carefully, the Time Lady began to scan along the length of the nearest crack, tracing its jagged path to the centre of the circle. Martha eyed her quizzically, a perplexed frown on her face.

"Is that a _laser_ screwdriver?" she asked accusingly, obviously recognising the device. "Like the Master's? Since when did you use a laser screwdriver?"

"Since now," Tejana said curtly, just as the scanner began to emit a series of frantic beeps. "And I've just found what I've been looking for."

Kneeling in the middle of the mosaic ring, she reached gingerly into the deep central fissure and pulled out a small object that sparkled and gleamed in the brilliant moonlight.

Martha stared at it with a fascinated expression, temporarily distracted from the subject of Tejana's screwdriver.

"Is that what I think it is?" she gasped. "No way...it can't be a diamond – it's huge!"

"Yes, it's a diamond," Tejana replied grimly. "It's a White Point Star, the most perfect diamond in the Universe, found only on Gallifrey. And it's proof positive that Rassilon is back."

At that moment, she felt a strange, disorienting shimmer in her mind, as though the world had somehow slipped sideways for a fractional second.

"What?" Martha demanded anxiously, catching the unsettled look on the Time Lady's face.

"The time lines surrounding this place just shifted," Tejana said shakily. "Something's interfering with the Web of Time. If two threads touch that aren't supposed to...I can't tell what will happen. We have to get back to the TARDIS right now."


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note:**_

**_To Aietradaea - Great to have you along for the ride! Knew I should have checked the spelling of Vinvocci, d'oh! And point taken about the rating, now changed to a 'T'.  
_**

_**To Strange and Sad A**_**_ngel, Omniac and Babybluepineapple - Thanks so much for your reviews, always fabulous to hear from you all and much appreciated!_**

* * *

**CHAPTER SIX**

Quickly, Tejana led the way back down into the basement and up the cobwebbed passage to the little cellar door.

"So, what's the Web of Time?" Martha asked, rather breathlessly, as she followed along behind. "And how does it fit in with all these ghost sightings?"

"The Web of Time was created in the beginning of Time Lord history," Tejana said. "It's not easy to explain, but basically it's the orderly co-existence of events within Time, all the fragmentary pieces and events connected together in one formal meta-structure. In actual fact, Rassilon was one of the Time Lords who made it possible. He harnessed the power of a black hole, named it the Eye of Harmony, and used it to create the Temporal Nucleus - the hitching post of chronology, if you like. While the Time Lords were alive, they maintained the Web and everything was very stable and absolutely fixed. Since Gallifrey was destroyed, though, things have become a lot more flexible. History is now in a constant state of flux and revision, worlds can be destroyed before their time, whole periods of time can be unwritten. It's much more dangerous and...and..."

"Timey wimey?" Martha suggested ironically, remembering a similar discussion she had once had with the Doctor. "A big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff?"

Tejana grinned in amusement, immediately recognising the quote. "Yep, exactly. Much more like a ball than a web, these days. With the Temporal Nucleus still at the heart of it all, anchoring the threads of Time."

"And the ghosts?"

"They're not ghosts, they're real, in a way, for as long as they last," Tejana replied. "They're temporal anomalies. Tiny slips in time, where two threads are touching that aren't supposed to. People and things from other time streams are crossing briefly into this one."

They were crossing the kitchen yard as they spoke, heading out into the open area surrounding the main buildings of the mansion.

"But why?" Martha demanded. "What's the point?"

"Good question. And one to which I don't know the answer. It must have something to do with breaking open the Time Lock, but I'm not sure what it is."

"Maybe the Doctor will know."

"Yes," Tejana agreed thoughtfully. "Maybe he will."

Just then, in the distance, a terrible roar resounded, the savage sound swirling around them in the still air with spine-chilling intensity.

Martha stopped dead in her tracks. "What...was...that?" she asked in a flat tone.

"I don't know," Tejana said grimly. "But I don't think I want to find out. It sounded hungry."

With that, they began to move even faster, forcing their way hurriedly through the thigh-high thicket of weeds which blocked their path, ignoring the way the thorns tore at their clothing. Before they had got very far, the dreadful, snarling roar reverberated again, sounding even closer this time. Martha looked nervously back over her shoulder towards the mansion and nearly stumbled in shock.

"Tejana! Oh my God, look!"

The Time Lady glanced back and felt a jolt of horror slice through her insides. Standing on the horizon just beyond the mansion, silhouetted against the bright moonlight, stood a huge dark figure, towering over ten feet tall, standing on two legs as solid as tree trunks, a long, powerful tail swishing heavily over the ground behind it. The great head was swaying back and forth, as though testing the air for scent. As they watched, the massive mouth opened and another primordial bellow echoed across the landscape.

"Please tell me that isn't a Tyrannosaurus Rex!" Martha exclaimed, her voice sharp with fear.

"Actually, given our location, I think it's more likely to be a megalosaurus," Tejana replied tightly. "Lighter, faster and more agile than a T-Rex...and I think it just caught our scent. RUN!"

But running was easier said than done on the rough, neglected terrain. They did their best, forcing themselves onward, shoving desperately through the malignant undergrowth. Behind them, they could feel the ground begin to tremble as the massive carnivore began the hunt, its sinewy legs pistoning fiercely into the ground, its long, flexible neck swinging as it ran. Searching through her scant knowledge of Britain's Jurassic period, Tejana had a faint memory that a megalosaurus could reach speeds of up to twenty-five kilometres per hour over short distances – which was a whole lot faster than anything she and Martha were ever going to manage.

"Make for the trees," she screamed to the other woman. "That's where the TARDIS is!"

She could see the small wood up ahead. Never had something so close seemed so unattainable. The creature was gaining on them in leaps and bounds, its voracious roars ripping and rending at the air as it came closer and closer.

As she ran, her double heartbeat pounding in her ears, Tejana found herself wondering ridiculously whether or not the Master would class being chased by a ravenous dinosaur as "getting into trouble." The way this was panning out, she might never see him again to find out!

She could sense that Martha was tiring, her friend's breathing rasping in and out of her tortured lungs as she began to falter and fall behind. Suddenly, without warning, the unthinkable happened. Martha tripped on a hidden rock and fell heavily, sprawling headlong across the ground in a tangle of crumpled limbs. Tejana skewed to an abrupt stop and ran back to her, frantically pulling at her arm, trying to haul her back on to her feet.

"I can't!" Martha gasped. "I've twisted my ankle. Just leave me!"

Tejana rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, like I'm going to do that."

The megalosaurus was closing in now, although it was beginning to slow. Like most cold-blooded animals, it was tiring quickly, unable to sustain its speed over long periods of time. They could see the feral yellow eyes rolling in its enormous head, its wide nostrils distended. The huge mouth yawned like a dreadful red door, rimmed with teeth, each tooth six inches long and sharp as a sword. Tejana stood over her fallen friend, the laser screwdriver in her hand, preparing to do her best to defend them both, even though she knew that, unless she got very lucky, the weapon would be unlikely to penetrate the predator's heavily-armoured skin. Martha drew her pistol and took aim at the dinosaur's head. The megalosaurus roared ravenously and lunged at them in a blur of savage motion and foetid breath, impatient for its meal. There was a piercing whine as a lethal beam of yellow laser energy erupted from the tip of the screwdriver. Simultaneously, a shot rang out from Martha's gun. But neither projectile found its mark, for in that split second, the megalosaurus simply winked out of existence, leaving its two prospective victims staring at empty air in complete astonishment. Briefly, there seemed to be a thin, jagged blue-white line floating in the space where the dinosaur had been, but then it too vanished as though it had never existed.

"It...it's gone..." Martha said hoarsely. "It just disappeared."

"Back to its own time," Tejana nodded, her knees weak with relief. "Thank the gods!"

Martha struggled to her feet, her eyes still warily scanning the surrounding area. "So...that was one of your temporal anomalies, was it?" she said, her tone acidic. "I could have done without the illustrative example, thanks."

"Not mine, Rassilon's," Tejana retorted irritably. "But yes, it was a temporal anomaly. And it wasn't exactly the highlight of my day, either. Come on, let's get back to the TARDIS before anything else happens."

* * *

"Here it is," Tejana said, helping her friend limp carefully into the small woodland clearing.

"Where?" Martha asked, looking around, her forehead wrinkling in confusion. "I can't see it."

"Right here. This tree...it's actually the TARDIS, camouflaged by the Chameleon Circuit."

Martha laughed. "So he finally got it working! What do you know? Although, I'm gonna miss that old Police Box."

Tejana shifted uncomfortably and didn't answer. She knew she should say something, explain about the Master, before they went inside, but she honestly had no idea what to say. And the Master was hardly going to be a happy camper to see Martha, either. She wasn't exactly on the top of his favourite person list after being so instrumental in foiling his plans on _The Valiant_. It was a bit like watching a car crash you knew was going to happen, but could do nothing to prevent. Silently, she led the way into the time machine, knowing she was going to regret this with every fibre in her being.

The Master had obviously been busy while she was away, because the lights were back on and the TARDIS interior had been restored to its normal appearance.

Standing in the doorway, Martha gazed around the beautiful console room appreciatively. "Now _this_ is an improvement!" she said approvingly. "No more grubby coral."

Then she caught sight of the blonde-haired, black-clad figure working under the console up on the glass platform, his back to the entrance. Her face lit up in anticipation. "Doctor!" she called, using the railing to support herself up the stairs, damaged ankle and all.

"Martha, wait!" Tejana cried, but it was too late.

Startled by the sudden noise, the Master turned around and all at once Martha saw his face. With a gasp of incredulous horror, she skidded to a stop, her feet desperately scrabbling for purchase on the glass floor.

"YOU!" she screeched.

"Martha Jones!" the Master exclaimed in absolute disgust. "What the _hell_ are you doing in my TARDIS?"

"_Your _TARDIS!" she spat fiercely, her face twisting in deadly hatred.

Without warning, the gun reappeared in her hands, trained threateningly on the space between his eyes. The Master laughed scornfully and folded his arms defiantly, his contemptuous brown eyes locked insolently on to hers.

"Like mother, like daughter, I see," he sneered. "And with exactly the same lack of guts. Go on, Miss Jones – pull the trigger, if you dare!"

"You needn't worry about that, _Saxon_," she returned angrily. "I've learnt a lot about killing since The Year That Never Was. And this time the Doctor isn't here to stop me."

"No, but I am," Tejana said quietly, stepping in front of the Master. "Put it away, Martha."

Martha stared at her in complete astonishment. "Tejana, can't you see...this is the Master! What are you doing?"

"I know who it is," Tejana replied wearily. "Now, please, I'm asking you nicely, put the gun away."

The Master laughed again, thoroughly enjoying Martha's evident confusion. Reaching for Tejana, he pulled her back hard against his body, his arms coming around her from behind in a possessive embrace.

"So, _sweetheart_," he said tauntingly, his lips deliberately brushing the curve of her neck, his mocking eyes never leaving Martha's horrified face. "Are you going to tell her or shall I?"

Suddenly understanding, Martha looked as though someone had viciously punched her in the stomach.

"No...no, it's not possible!" she gasped. "Tejana, you wouldn't...you couldn't..."

"Not_ helping, _Koschei!" Tejana hissed, furious that he was purposely making the situation as difficult as possible.

"Helping Martha Jones isn't my job," he answered coldly.

"Get your filthy hands off her!" Martha ordered, the gun steady in her hands. "I don't know what you've done to her, but you're not getting away with it, you psychopath!"

Instead of obeying, the Master gave a wicked smile and ran his hand suggestively up Tejana's inner thigh, the calculated movement clearly meant to convey his ownership. "Go on, Ana...tell her how much you like it when I touch you. Tell her how much you _love_ it when we..."

"Shut up!" Tejana cut in wrathfully, slapping his hand away, her face flooded with humiliated colour. "One more word, Koschei, just one more and I swear I'll _let_ her shoot you!"

Having effectively made his point, the Master gave a snort of derision and turned his back on them, returning to his repair work on the console, as though the mere fact of Martha's existence bored him immeasurably.

Tejana ignored him and fixed her gaze steadily on her friend. "He's telling the truth, Martha. I'm with him because I want to be. There's no coercion involved. So I would really, really appreciate it if you would put the gun away and stop trying to kill him, OK?"

Slowly, Martha dropped the gun to her side, where it dangled loosely in her hand, as though she had inexplicably forgotten what it was for. The look on her face was one of complete and utter betrayal, her dark eyes glistening with bewildered hurt.

"How could you, Tejana?" she whispered painfully. "After everything he did...all the people he killed, the lives he destroyed, all that we went through to stop him...how _could_ you?"

Tejana swallowed, her throat dry. The stricken look on her friend's face pierced her through both her hearts. After all her terrible experiences during The Year That Never Was, Martha had every right to be upset. And Tejana had no words to explain her strange relationship with the Master. In many ways, she didn't even understand it herself. The only thing that she knew was that, somehow, he had become as necessary to her as breathing – something that Martha would never be able to accept or forgive.

So, instead of trying to justify herself, she simply shrugged and said inadequately, "It is what it is, Martha."

The other woman shook her head in disbelief and then turned bitterly away, sitting down on the top step of the entry stairs, her shoulders hunched. Tejana made a small helpless movement towards her, but then stopped. There was nothing she could do or say which would change the way Martha felt. And right now, they had bigger problems.

She moved back to the console and stood beside the Master.

"I found this," she said in a low voice, showing him the White Point Star. "There were six bodies in the old Gate Room, drained of their life energy – obviously left over from Rassilon's resurrection ceremony."

The Master swore violently. "So where is he?"

"I don't know," she responded. "Not here. But it gets worse – somehow he's interfering with the causal nexus. Martha and I were chased by a megalosaurus in the grounds of the mansion – that's why I had to bring her back to the TARDIS."

"_What_?"

"It's been happening all over Britain, according to Martha – Torchwood have been investigating it for three months. Ghost sightings, people, places, creatures...he's been bringing together threads of Time that were never meant to touch," Tejana replied tensely. "Will the TARDIS fly? We have to get to the Hub. We need Torchwood's data to help track Rassilon down. And we need the Doctor."

The Master's face hardened. "Oh no, we're not! First you inflict the lovely Miss Jones on me, now you want to add the Doctor and Captain Freak into the mix. I don't think so!"

"_We...have...to...stop...Rassilon_!" Tejana gritted out, her eyes flaring with exasperation. "What part of that do you not understand? We're going to need all the help we can get!"

"_I said no_!" the Master snarled.

"Fine!" she retorted. "Then I'll go with Martha. With or without you, Koschei, I'm going to the Hub, right now!"

For a moment, he glared savagely at her. Tejana could see the deep lines of strain around his eyes and instinctively understood that the reawakened noise in his head was torturing him beyond bearing, the remorseless drumming wearing away at his sanity like a corrosive acid. At last, to her immense relief, he moved to the navigational terminal and began to punch in the codes to bring it back on line.

"Of course she'll fly," he said curtly. "I'm a genius, remember?"

Tejana sighed. Suddenly, she missed the boring peace and quiet of the Eye of Orion. All in all, it had _really_ not been a good day so far. Not only had the Master's drums come back, but she had also survived an almost impossible crash landing, discovered a pile of disgustingly mummified human remains, been chased by a hungry prehistoric reptile and then – just to cap it all off - she had destroyed her relationship with one of her best friends, probably permanently. Now all she had left to do was to face up to the Doctor and Jack and then help to find a way to stop Rassilon annihilating the Universe.

_Meh_, she thought ruefully, _piece of cake_!


	7. Chapter 7

**_Author's Note_****: ****_Thanks everyone for your reviews!_**

_**To Omniac – LOL about out-running Martha! No missing dialogue, though, the Master is referring back to where Tejana asked him if the TARDIS would fly in order to get them to the Hub.**_

_**To babybluepineapple – Request taken on board – might be a few chapters away though :0)**_

_**To Aietradaea – Thanks for your well-timed pick-me-up review, much appreciated!**_

_**To Strange and Sad Angel – Hope you have a super duper weekend!**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

The Doctor stood waiting, his arms folded, flanked on one side by Amy and on the other by Jack. Nobody said anything. The silence in the Hub was tense and expectant as they awaited the arrival of the other TARDIS. Amy's face was anxious and apprehensive – she was obviously not looking forward to this confrontation. Jack's features were more difficult to read , his expression shuttered, his eyes cold and distant.

Reflexively, the Doctor explored the psychic link once more. Much to his relief, it still seemed to be whole. He could once again feel his daughter's vibrant consciousness in the back of his mind, their close interconnection restored, just as it had always been. He could even faintly sense the Master, the Gallifreyan sixth sense automatically detecting the proximity of another Time Lord. It was strange, however. Behind his recognition of the Master's consciousness, there almost seemed to be an imperceptible echo, as though another hidden presence lurked within the link, cloaked in shadows. But that was impossible. There were only three Time Lords remaining. The Doctor frowned worriedly, wondering if this was some new trick of the Master's. All these tiny temporal disturbances being investigated by Torchwood and now an urgent mental summons from Tejana to meet her at the Hub...it was all a bit much to be merely coincidence.

At that moment, a familiar, droning sound interrupted his thoughts. The faint outline of the Master's time machine slowly materialised beside the Doctor's own TARDIS, the exterior once again replicating the nearest large object, so that two identical blue police boxes ended up standing side by side.

The Doctor took a deep breath as the double doors opened, ready for anything. Even so, the first person to appear took him completely by surprise.

"Martha Jones!" he exclaimed happily, delighted to see her.

Martha glared at him. The Doctor flinched – he knew that look. It meant that Martha was in a right royal temper.

"Who the hell are you, Mister?" she demanded.

Suddenly the Time Lord remembered that he had not seen Martha since he had regenerated. "Ah...new face!" he chortled. "It's me...the Doctor! I've regenerated. Brilliant, isn't it?"

Martha hesitated, eyeing him suspiciously, as though she suspected him of trying to fool her. But then, seeing Jack standing beside him, she obviously realised he was telling the truth and threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly.

"Oh, Doctor! It's so _good_ to see you!"

The Doctor heard Amy clear her throat loudly. Turning his head, he saw the red-headed girl looking at him with her eyebrows raised, her foot tapping on the ground. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat and disengaged himself from Martha's embrace. "Um...Martha, this is Amy Pond, my new companion. Amy, this is Doctor Martha Smith-Jones, she used to travel with me."

"Nice to meet you," Amy said briefly, her tone faintly hostile.

"Yes...nice to meet you too," Martha replied coolly, looking Amy up and down.

Then Jack stepped forward to give Martha a hug. "Hello, Martha Jones, looking good!"

"Hello, Jack," she answered fondly. "You always look good to me!"

"Well now, isn't that touching?" a sarcastic voice interjected.

Glancing up, the Doctor saw that the Master had emerged from the TARDIS, followed closely by Tejana.

"What fun! A reunion from the good old days on board _The Valiant_ – the Doctor, his daughter, the girlie and the freak," the Master continued mockingly. "Oh, and me, of course – couldn't have a real reunion without me, now could we?"

"Yeah, great fun, except that somebody seems to have changed sides since then!" Martha snarled, glaring pointedly at Tejana.

Standing beside the Master, Tejana ignored the acidic comment and focussed her gaze warily on her father.

"Hello, Doctor," she said quietly.

He stared at her, feeling a stab of pain deep inside. Facing off against the Master was not new. He had done it countless times, throughout the centuries, across the galaxies, over and over again. But always before, when Tejana was present, she had stood at the Doctor's back, her loyalty and support an unquestioned certainty, to be taken for granted. This time, however, she stood at the Master's side as though she belonged there.

All at once, the Doctor had a flashback to a time long, long ago, to the day the Master had held Tejana in his arms for the very first time.

* * *

_Theta paced up and down the living area of his small apartment in the Citadel, desperately trying to soothe the screaming child in his arms. At three months old, Tejana was an extremely restless baby. Theta and his wife Melana often spent hours trying to settle her._

_Over the cacophony of noise, he shot an apologetic glance at his guest._

"_I'm sorry, Koschei. When you accepted an invitation for dinner, I'm guessing you didn't know what you were letting yourself in for."_

_The other Time Lord grinned. "Well, I can already tell she takes after you, Theta."_

"_Why's that?"_

"_She never shuts up!" Koschei laughed._

_Theta laughed too, relieved that Koschei didn't seem to mind the domestic confusion. It felt so good to joke with his friend again. It had been too long since they had seen each other. They had been such close friends at the Academy, almost inseparable, but since graduation they had inexplicably grown apart. _

_Theta had been been busy with his duties as a very junior member of the General Council and then, of course, his parents had arranged for his marriage to Melana, the daughter of another noble Gallifreyan family. Theta didn't love Melana – he hadn't even known her very well prior to their marriage – but that was how alliances were formed in Time Lord society, so he had not protested the arrangement. Tejana had been born a little over a year later, much to their surprise. From the beginning of history, the Gallifreyan race had never been a particularly prolific people. Indeed, as the centuries had gone by, fewer and fewer children were born into the high-caste Time Lord families and the population had begun to decline. For Theta and Melana to have had a child so early in their marriage had been a cause for great rejoicing in both families._

_As for Koschei, upon leaving the Academy, he had taken up a post as a political attache, arranged for him by his influential father, who had a stellar career in politics mapped out for his only son. From what Theta had heard, things had not gone to plan, however. Koschei had apparently fallen in with some radical thinkers and had become more and more involved in insurrectionist and revolutionary behaviour, including some very dark practices. Eventually, there had been a huge scandal of some sort – something to do with the Black Scrolls of Rassilon, or so the rumours went – which had been quickly hushed up by the young Time Lord's family. Koschei had been forced to regenerate and was now living in disgrace, having been disowned by his father and the rest of the Oakdown family._

_It was customary upon leaving the Academy for the newly-graduated Time Lords to take a new name, symbolising their transition to adulthood. After much thought, Theta had chosen to be known as "The Doctor", a name which embodied his fierce desire to help others. Rather tellingly, Koschei had elected to be known as "The Master", a name redolent with connotations of dominance and supremacy. _

_Theta looked sideways at his smiling friend, wondering sadly if the other Time Lord still heard the sound of the drums. It had been many, many years since Koschei had mentioned the insidious four-beat rhythm which had invaded his mind as a child during his Academy initiation ceremony. Theta had eventually learned not to speak of it, since Koschei would only walk away if the subject was raised. Somehow, even without being told, Theta guessed that his friend was still tormented by the relentless sound._

"_Here, let me try," Koschei offered, holding out his arms for the wailing infant._

"_What? But you don't know anything about babies," Theta replied in amusement._

"_Can't do any worse than you seem to be doing!" _

_Theta hesitated. He knew that Melana probably wouldn't approve of him allowing Koschei to hold the baby. She didn't approve of Koschei at all, given his dark reputation, and had only very reluctantly agreed to this dinner invitation at all. But Melana was safely in the kitchen and Koschei __was still his best friend, even if they had been somewhat estranged lately. Silently, he handed Tejana to the other Time Lord. The ensuing results were nothing short of dramatic. The baby took deep breath, ready for another ear-splitting shriek, only to realise that somebody new was holding her. Changing her mind about yelling, she looked curiously up into Koschei's face with big, solemn blue eyes, studying him carefully. Then, apparently satisfied, she curled her tiny fist trustingly around his forefinger and gurgled contentedly._

_Theta stared at his friend in absolute astonishment. "That was incredible. I've been trying to settle her for two hours! How did you DO that?"_

_Koschei shrugged, equally surprised. "Beginner's luck, I guess."_

_Gently, he cradled the baby in his arms and began to walk back and forth, humming softly to her._

"_What did you end up calling her, Theta?" he asked._

"_Tejanakaturadilena, after her mother, Melanakaturadilena," Theta replied. "Tejana for short."_

"_Whew, that's a big name for such a little thing."_

_Theta smiled. "That's why Mel calls her Ana."_

"_Ana," the Master repeated softly, looking down at the child now sleeping peacefully in his arms. "Beautiful Ana."_

_

* * *

_

Centuries later, the Doctor pulled himself roughly out of his memories. Sadly, he wondered if the Master remembered that day as clearly as he did.

"Hello, Tejana," he said gravely, in response to her greeting. "Are you all right?"

"Of course she's all right," the Master growled. "Why wouldn't she be?"

"Let her speak for herself!" the Doctor said coldly, his voice cracking like a whip.

Tejana shrugged. "I'm fine, really."

"You dropped off my psychic radar for three months," the Doctor said curtly. "I was worried. I thought..."

The Master laughed. "Thought what, Doctor? That I'd killed her? Oh, come on!"

"Why is that so surprising?" Jack rasped, speaking up for the first time, his voice acute with loathing. "It's what you do, you murderous bastard."

"We were on the Eye of Orion, doing some TARDIS maintenance," Tejana cut in hurriedly, feeling the Master tense in fury. "The positively charged atmosphere nullifies the psychic link."

"So why did you come back?" the Doctor asked. "Why did you call me?"

"Not my idea, believe me!" the Master snapped, levelling a baleful look at Jack, which was returned with interest.

"Because the Cult of Saxon have resurrected Rassilon, using the White Point Star," Tejana said bluntly. "He's back, here on Earth somewhere."

"_What_?" the Doctor exclaimed, the blood draining from his face. "Are you sure?"

The Master grimaced ironically. "Oh yeah, I'm sure. I could hardly miss it. The drums in my head are back – Rassilon's ever-so-thoughtful little gift."

"We need your help, Doctor," Tejana told her father, her tone urgent now. "Actually, the whole Universe needs your help."


	8. Chapter 8

**_Author's Note__:_**

**_Thanks so much to Babybluepineapple and Omniac for your reviews - seriously, you guys are what keeps me writing! So many people read without reviewing, so having wonderful regular reviewers like you is a real bonus. You make me smile!_**

**_

* * *

_****CHAPTER EIGHT**

Quickly and concisely, Tejana explained to the Doctor all they knew – the return of the Master's drums, the temporal disturbance which had caused the TARDIS to crash land, her discovery of the human remains in the manor and the advent of the megalosaurus.

As usual, the Doctor paced up and down restlessly as she talked, a scowl etched on his face as he realised the far-reaching and ominous implications of Rassilon's return.

"So he's back...and he's playing with the Web of Time, punching tiny holes in the space time continuum," the Doctor mused. "But why?"

"Why do you think?" the Master bit out. "He wants what he's always wanted, to smash the Time Lock and free Gallifrey."

"Yes, but these small temporal disturbances aren't going to help him do that," Tejana protested. "He'd need to generate a time slip on a massive scale – completely corrupt the causal nexus - and that's impossible."

The Doctor frowned. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" she queried.

"Unless he's managed to create a temporal manipulator," the Doctor said bleakly.

The Master shot him an incredulous look. "That would be hard enough on Gallifrey. But here on this backwater planet in the space of a few months?"

"This isn't just any Time Lord we're talking about," the Doctor returned grimly. "This is Rassilon, the man who managed to harness the raw power of a black hole to create the Eye of Harmony. What makes you think he couldn't build a temporal manipulator?"

He glanced over at Jack, Martha and Amy, who had all been standing silently as the three Time Lords talked, trying to follow the gist of the discussion.

"The first thing we need to do is to find him. Jack, has there been any significant disturbance in the Rift in the last three months? Any kind of drain, any sign of outside interference?"

The Captain shrugged. "None."

"He's not using Rift energy then," the Doctor surmised. "Pity. That would have been fairly easy to trace."

"What about a Rhondium Sensor?" the Master suggested thoughtfully. "If we can build one on a large enough scale, we should be able to detect a build up of delta particles next time he manipulates the Web. That should be enough to track him down."

"Brilliant! That's perfect! We'll boost the power using the Rift – we should be able to augment the range to cover the entire Earth!" the Doctor said, his face lighting up with enthusiasm. "We'd better get started. We don't know how much time we have before he tries to break the Time Lock."

"You're not going to _work_ with him, are you, Doctor?" Martha demanded disbelievingly. "You can't seriously be considering allowing him anywhere _near_ the Rift! Has everybody suddenly gone mad or is it just me?"

"We don't have a choice, Martha," the Doctor said seriously. "Believe me, if Rassilon gets his way, the Master is going to be the least of our problems."

With that, he turned away, his sonic screwdriver already in his hand as he prepared to cannibalise the Torchwood computer network. Tejana knelt at the base of Rift Manipulator, untangling some of the linkage cables. The Master shot the three humans a contemptuous look and then followed his arch-rival, his eyes playing curiously over the Rift monitors.

"Fine!" Martha snapped. "Whatever! Jack, I want a word with you...in private! Your office, please! Amy, why don't you make some coffee or something?"

Furiously, her head held high, she marched up the stairs to Jack's office, ignoring Amy's glare of pure resentment. Jack gave a deep sigh. He really didn't want to have this conversation, which was why he had never told Martha the full version of how Tejana had come to leave Torchwood. Now, however, it appeared that he was going to be unable to avoid it.

* * *

"So, why didn't you tell me the truth, Jack?" Martha demanded accusingly.

They stood in the centre of Jack's new office, a large messy room containing Jack's desk, liberally littered with papers, a sizable conference table, and a ratty old couch. The wall overlooking the floor of the Hub was completely made of glass, giving the occupants of the office a clear view of what was going on down below.

Jack's face was suddenly weary. "Would you have believed me if I had? Besides, I was hoping she would change her mind, get over this madness and come back to us."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't look like that's going to happen, does it?" Martha snapped. "What on earth can she be thinking? He must have some sort of hold over her, it's the only possible answer."

Jack shook his head dully. "The Doctor says not. He says she's exactly where she wants to be."

"But it doesn't make sense! Not after everything that happened on _The Valiant_, the whole Year That Never Was!"

"Something happened between them on Gallifrey. I don't know what it was, but it changed everything. She's never been the same since," Jack replied heavily.

Suddenly, Martha's face brightened, an idea dawning in her eyes. "Maybe we can do something about that."

"What are you talking about?"

"The B67 compound," Martha said grimly. "That new batch that UNIT recently sent over can erase up to five years of a person's life, depending on the dose."

Jack stared at her in shock. "_Ret-Con_! You can't be serious! You can't give an amnesia drug to a Time Lord!"

"Why not?" Martha retorted eagerly. "I'm totally serious. Think about it, Jack! If we could erase her memory of whatever the Master did to her on Gallifrey, she would change back to how she was after we left _The Valiant _and she first came to work for Torchwood. Everything would be the way it was before."

"Ret-Con was developed to affect human physiology. It probably won't even work on a Time Lord," Jack argued. "And the Doctor would never approve, as much as he wants her away from the Master."

"The Doctor wouldn't have to know until it was too late," Martha replied determinedly. "Tejana's my friend. I can't just stand by and leave her with that monster. If the Ret-Con doesn't work, then at least we'll know we tried."

Jack hesitated. He knew in his heart that what Martha was proposing was wrong. To play god in that way, to use Ret-Con not to protect the secrecy of Torchwood and therefore the Earth, but to manipulate someone's life to suit his own preference, was an unforgivable act of arrogance. But the temptation was so great. To get Tejana back, to bring her home, to cut the Master out of her life like the filthy cancer he was...surely the end justified the means?

"Well?" Martha demanded. "Jack?"

He took a deep breath and nodded. "OK. We'll do it."

* * *

Wrinkling her nose with distaste, Amy fiddled half-heartedly with the coffee machine in the Torchwood kitchen. She had no idea how to use the stupid thing. The kitchen was like the rest of the Torchwood Hub, a complete mess. Obviously when the headquarters had been recently rebuilt, the kitchen facilities had not been high on the agenda. It consisted of a stainless steel bench, complete with a grubby sink which looked like it should belong in the Autopsy Room, the incomprehensible, disgusting-looking coffee machine, a beaten-up old refrigerator and a few chairs with half the stuffing falling out of their seats. A few lop-sided shelves were fixed to the wall, crowded with bizarre miscellaneous items, ranging from a bottle of stuffed gherkins to a glass sphere containing what appeared to be an alien cactus of some sort.

_Torchwood, the last line of Earth's defence against alien menace_, Amy thought sarcastically. _If their kitchen organisation is anything to go by, my money's on the aliens!_

She sighed loudly. It wasn't really the state of the kitchen which was bothering her. What was really bothering her was Martha Jones. Honestly, that woman had some nerve, ordering Amy in here to make the coffee, like some sort of servant. Where the hell did she get off? Just because she used to be a companion of the Doctor's ages ago, she acted as if that gave her some sort of precedence.

Amy had to admit that she was a bit jealous of Martha. Dr Smith-Jones was pretty, she was intelligent, she had an important job with UNIT, she obviously had an enduring bond with the Doctor, and she was close friends with both Tejana and Jack. She even appeared to share some sort of history with the Master, although it seemed not the good kind, from the dagger-like looks they kept shooting each other. All of this added up to Amy feeling somewhat insecure, which was a relatively new feeling for her and not one that she relished.

Crossly, she pushed some buttons at random, trying to work out where you were supposed to insert the coffee beans.

"Can I help you with something?" a polite voice asked.

Startled, Amy spun around to see a good-looking, brown-haired young man, dressed neatly in a dark suit, complete with immaculate white shirt and tasteful tie.

Assuming he was one of the Torchwood staff members she hadn't met yet, Amy smiled at him.

"You scared me!" she said. "I didn't hear you come in. My name's Amy Pond, I'm a friend of the Doctor's. You wouldn't know anything about making coffee, would you?"

* * *

It was happening again. Tejana put her hand up to her forehead, feeling the strange, glittering haze in her mind, the odd sensation of Time being out of kilter.

"There!" she said sharply. "Did you feel that? Another time slip!"

The other two Time Lords nodded, glancing up from the tangle of wires and components they were connecting together.

"That one felt close by," the Master frowned.

"Let's hope it's not a megalosaurus this time," the Doctor said ironically. "We could really do without that right now."


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note: Thanks to Babybluepineapple, Strange and Sad Angel and Omniac for your reviews - whew, you people are sharp, it's starting to get difficult to keep ahead of you, lol!**_

_**Also, big welcome back to soro1010 - lovely to have you on board for another trip, yee haa :0) ! Thanks for your review!**_

* * *

_**CHAPTER NINE**_

Carefully balancing a tray laden with mugs and a coffee pot, Amy left the kitchen and walked out into the main area of the Hub.

"Coffee's made!" she called out, making her way towards the stairs leading up to Jack's office.

The Doctor merely shook his head absent-mindedly and returned to the circuitry he was working on. The Master ignored her altogether, not even bothering to look up.

Feeling sorry for her, Tejana went over to help, taking the coffee pot from her. "Come on, let's go upstairs. I could do with a cup."

Jack and Martha looked up guiltily as they entered, breaking their conversation off abruptly. Tejana sighed inwardly, guessing that they had been discussing her relationship with the Master. It was too much to hope that Martha would just let it be, even in the face of the overwhelming threat posed by the return of Rassilon. Tejana was not particularly surprised. Martha had always been stubborn – once she got hold of something, she was like a dog with a bone – and her hatred of the Master was still all-consuming.

"Oh, coffee! Thanks, Amy," Martha exclaimed in a falsely cheerful voice, shooting Jack a significant look. "Are you going to have a cup, Tejana?"

"Yes, thanks," Tejana replied.

"So, are you getting anywhere down there?" Jack asked, distracting her attention for a moment, while Amy started pouring the coffee and Martha bustled around handing out the full mugs.

"The sensor device is almost complete. But then we'll have to wait, " Tejana answered dispiritedly. "It's so frustrating...we know Rassilon's going to do something, but until he does it, we don't know where he is, and by then it might be too late."

"Here," Martha said, passing her a brimming cup. "Have your coffee. I'm sure it will make you feel better."

All of a sudden, Tejana had a weird feeling. Jack and Martha seemed to be staring at her, as though they were waiting for something. She shot a sharp, assessing look at Jack, who hurriedly took a gulp of his own coffee.

"Good coffee, Amy," he said. Then, as though the taste had just hit him, he added appreciatively, "Actually, _great _coffee! Wow, not many people can make it the way I like it!"

"Yeah, I know, industrial strength," Amy smiled. "Can't take the credit, I'm afraid. Ianto showed me what to do."

To her amazement, the reaction to her casual words was completely electric. Jack nearly choked on his mouthful of coffee, while Tejana and Martha both visibly flinched as though she had struck them.

"What?" she demanded urgently. "What did I say?"

"What do you mean, Ianto showed you?" Jack snarled. "Is this your idea of a sick joke?"

"N...n...no," Amy stammered, bewildered by the aggressive look on his face. "I was in the kitchen and I couldn't get the machine to work and he came in and helped me. Why? Is there some reason I shouldn't be speaking to him?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Jack was on his feet, running for the door.

"Jack, wait!" Tejana cried, putting down her untouched coffee and leaping after him. "_Jack_!"

He clattered down the stairs, taking them three at a time, disappearing into the kitchen, with Tejana close behind.

The Master glanced up, his eyes dark with loathing. "What's wrong with Captain Freak?"

"Martha? Amy? What's going on?" the Doctor echoed, as the two women appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Amy says Ianto Jones helped her make the coffee," Martha answered, her voice quivering.

"_So what_?" Amy snapped angrily. "I wish someone would explain what's going on! Why shouldn't he help me? He seemed like a perfectly nice guy to me!"

"He was," Martha responded bleakly.

"_Was_?"

"Ianto Jones has been dead for just over three years," the Doctor said quietly.

"_Dead_!" Amy exclaimed, the colour leaching from her face. "I was talking to a _ghost_?"

"Not a ghost, a temporal anomaly," he replied. "The past briefly intersecting with the present, the same thing that happened with Martha's megalosaurus. Two pieces of Time which should never touch - which is contrary to the Laws of Time and shouldn't be happening."

* * *

In the kitchen, Jack was staring around an empty room. "He's not here," he said, the desolate ache bleeding through his voice.

Tejana grabbed on to the door frame to steady herself. The swirl of temporal distortion in the room was overwhelming, almost like a hallucination, a twisting, turning mirage which appeared to both focus on and gravitate around Jack. For a brief moment, an eerie impression flashed into her mind, a chimera of Jack standing at the heart of the Universe, the threads of Time spinning and swirling around him in a fantastic, spherical dance, eternally anchored by his very presence. Then she blinked and the strange apparition vanished, to be replaced once more by the grubby Torchwood kitchen. She shook her head dizzily, trying to clear the preternatural sensation from her mind.

"I'm so sorry, Jack," she managed to say. "He was just a blip in the causal nexus - an echo from the past, a temporal aberration."

Jack's blue eyes sharpened with pain. "Not to me," he said bitterly. "Never to me. I wouldn't have cared _how_ it happened if it meant I could have held him one more time!"

"Come and finish your coffee," she entreated softly. "Temporal anomaly or not, he still made it for you. It's a gift. Don't waste it."

He hesitated, as if reluctant to leave the room where Ianto had so fleetingly made a return to the world of the living, only to quietly slip away again. Then he nodded and made to follow her from the room.

But before he reached the door, he paused and looked back, his attention caught by something behind him.

"Wait...what's that?" he muttered, sounding abstracted, almost as if talking to himself rather than to Tejana. "It's...beautiful."

The Time Lady turned around, to see him stretching out his hand as though mesmerised, reaching towards a glimmer of intense blue-white light glowing lambently into the room from a tiny, ragged crack in the wall.

"JACK, NO!" she screamed, instinctively seizing the back of his greatcoat and pulling with all her strength. For a horrific second, she thought it wasn't going to be enough, as thin tendrils of radiance surged from the crack, extending towards him like hungry, grasping fingers. But then he lost his balance and fell backwards with a heavy crash on to the floor. The shining trails of light retreated rapidly, withdrawing furtively into the almost-imperceptible fissure in the wall. Without warning, there was an unpleasant grinding noise and the crack snapped shut, the incandescent glow winking out like an extinguished candle flame.

"What the hell was that?" Jack demanded, abruptly released from his trance-like state.

"Time-fire," Tejana answered tremulously. "A field of pure time energy created by the time slip. If you'd touched it...oh gods, Jack, you would have been erased, completely wiped out of Time itself."

Climbing to his feet, he looked bleakly into her face. "You mean I would have died?"

"Worse than that," she retorted. "You never would have existed at all."

"So, Captain Jack Harkness, the man who can never die, would have ceased to exist," he said savagely. "Maybe you should have just let it happen."

She gazed at him steadily, her eyes full of compassion. She knew that sometimes Jack's immortality was a heavy burden for him to bear, especially when everyone he cared for seemed to slip away from him. As a Time Lord, she understood very well how he felt.

"You don't mean that."

"Don't I?" he returned harshly, before walking out the door.

* * *

Pushing past Martha and Amy, Jack climbed the stairs back up to his office, swallowing back the despair which threatened to break him every time he allowed himself to think of Ianto.

Time healed all wounds, or so they said. And maybe that was true, for the ordinary, ephemeral human living out his allotted life span upon the Earth. But not for him. Not for Captain Jack Harkness. Time _was_ his wound, the poisonous sting of his immortality thrust into his soul, driven deeper every day by the weight of his sorrow and loss, his loneliness and regret. And the guilt, oh God, the never-ending guilt.

Once he had thought it a blessing, a precious gift Rose had given him, albeit inadvertently. Once he had laughed in the face of Death, over and over again, revelling in it. He had thought that it made him special, made him count, made him invincible. He knew better now. The Master had been right, all those years ago. Handsome Jack was nothing but a freak.

He knew it wasn't fair to take it out on Tejana, but he couldn't help it. After all, he had lost her too, just like everything else he had ever cared about. After the 456 incident, after Stephen and Ianto had died, she had been the only thing that had made him want to keep on going. She had found him on Zog, a rancid rat-hole of a planet where he had been slowly sinking into a putrid mire of alcohol and meaningless sex, desperately trying to forget. She had picked him up, helped him to start over, taught him to care again. And then she had just walked away, into the arms of his most hated enemy.

The door to his office opened and he looked up to see her standing there uncertainly, a pleading expression on her face. "I know you're angry with me, Jack."

"Angry? No, really, why would I be angry?" Jack shot back sarcastically, suddenly needing to hurt her as she had hurt him. "You Time Lords are just so _bloody_ arrogant. You have absolutely no idea what you do to people, do you? Or, if you do, you just don't give a damn! You sweep into their lives, change everything and then just walk away, without a backward glance. You pick people up and then discard them on a whim, like little playthings."

"That's not true!" she protested.

"Oh yeah?" he sneered. "The Doctor left me to _rot_ on Satellite Five, among the dead and the dying, and just waltzed off with Rose and never gave me another thought. Out of sight, out of mind, right? And then there was you! Do you think I came back to Earth after Ianto and Stephen died out of a sense of duty? Because I wanted to be a hero? I came back for _you_, because you asked me to, because I _loved _you. But you even went one better than the Doctor, didn't you? Because when you waltzed off with someone else, it was the biggest bastard in the Universe, the man who tortured me for a full year just for kicks! So really, Tejana, why the _hell_ would I be angry with you?"

Tejana took an entreating step towards him, her eyes glistening with tears. "Jack!"

But before she could say anything else, Martha and Amy appeared in the doorway behind her.

"Oh," Amy said uncomfortably, immediately sensing the tension in the room. "Sorry. Are we interrupting something?"

"No, you're not," Jack replied shortly. "I think we've said all there is to say. Haven't we, Tejana?"

He saw her face tighten in pain. Then her usual calm, emotionless mask slipped back into place and she nodded stiffly. "You're right. There's nothing else to say."

"Well...um...we thought we should all finish our coffee, before it gets cold," Martha said brightly. "Since Amy went to all the trouble of making it."

She cast a sideways glance at Jack before picking up Tejana's cup and handing it to her. Tejana took it without comment and moved over to the glass wall overlooking the floor of the Hub, gazing unhappily down at the Doctor and the Master working together on the rhondium sensor, her back to her friends. Jack watched her intently, willing her to raise the cup to her lips, all his scruples regarding Martha's plan having vanished in the face of an overwhelming wave of anger and resentment.

_Come on, Tejana, drink it, _he urged silently. _Then we'll see if that bastard gets the last laugh!_

At last, deep in thought, almost as if she was unaware of her action, she took a large swallow of the drug-laced coffee. Martha and Jack nodded triumphantly at each other, waiting for the sudden onset of drowsiness which always followed a large dose of Ret-Con. However, to their alarm, Tejana's reaction was far more unexpected and far more dramatic. Her hands grabbed frantically at her throat, her pale skin flushing with bright colour as she began to wheeze, desperately struggling for breath, her lips already turning blue. Turning, her eyes flew incredulously to Jack's horrified face.

"What...have...you..._done_?" she gasped, falling weakly to her knees.

"Oh my God!" Martha cried, rushing across to her. "We've poisoned her!"

Jack leapt for the door and tore it open. "DOCTOR!"


	10. Chapter 10

**_Author's Note_****_:_**

**_Thanks to Aietradaea, Babybluepineapple, soro1010 and Strange and Sad Angel for your reviews on the last chapter! Awesome as always to hear your opinions!  
_**

**_

* * *

_**

**CHAPTER TEN**

The Master watched Tejana follow Jack back up the stairs, a scowl etched blackly across his face. Harkness always made himself out to be such a big hero, it was utterly sickening. For a moment, he thought longingly of the good old days on board _The Valiant_, when he had been able to kill the handsome captain over and over, whenever he felt like it. Right now, it would be a real pleasure to make the freak scream in agony, once for every time he dared to look at Ana and then once again for every time he even had the audacity to think of her. Handsome Jack needed to learn who Ana belonged to – given the chance, it was one lesson the Master would be only too happy to teach him.

The Doctor, waiting for him to hand over the circuit he had just finished adjusting, noticed his inattention.

"I'm sorry...keeping you from something important, am I?" he asked dryly.

"Of course not," the Master responded in an equally sarcastic tone. "What could possibly be more important than sitting here with you, saving the Universe yet again? It's becoming a bad habit with me lately. What is it now? Three times? Four? I must be due for a free set of steak knives any day now!"

"Not likely!" the Doctor retorted. "Not when they'd probably end up sticking out of my back."

The Master laughed. "Oh, Doctor! Have a little faith. We're on the same team, remember?"

"Yeah, for as long as it suits you. I know you. You never do anything without an ulterior motive."

There was silence for a moment. Then the Master said, "Do you remember how we worshipped Rassilon when we were kids? The great leader, the big role model, the glorious legend that every child in the Academy wanted to grow up to be like? You even had that ridiculous bust of him on your desk in our dorm room."

"As I recall, you drew a moustache and a pair of glasses on it, and I got the blame," the Doctor replied ironically. "I got three demerit points and an excruciatingly boring lecture from Borusa on showing respect for the illustrious founder of Gallifreyan society."

The Master sniggered at the memory. But then his expression sobered, his eyes hard and bitter. "Who'd have thought back then that we'd end up trying to stop him ripping the Universe to shreds?"

"A lot of things have changed since then."

"Yeah, they have."

The Doctor hesitated briefly and then said in a low voice, "I won't let you hurt Tejana."

"What makes you think I would ever allow anyone or anything to hurt her?" the Master snarled, his knife-like gaze acute with hostility.

"You can't help yourself. Like Jack said, it's what you do."

"It's a bit late to start playing concerned Dad now, isn't it?"

"What are you talking about?" the Doctor snapped. "I _am _her father and I have the _right _to be concerned, considering the path you've chosen to date!"

"Oh yeah?" the Master sneered. "Then, tell me, _Doctor_...what happened to Ana when she was returned to Gallifrey after you got exiled to Earth for meddling in the affairs of the Universe, huh? Do you even _know_? Or did you never bother to ask?"

The Doctor gave him a bewildered look. He obviously had no idea what the Master was talking about or what events so long ago had to do with their present conversation.

"She was sent back to the Academy to continue her schooling," he answered with a shrug. "I know she didn't want to go, but it couldn't be helped at the time."

The Master shook his head, the murderous anger rising in him again as he thought of Tejana's anguished memories, her repeated nightmares of Councillor Rohan's pudgy hands intimately touching and defiling her. "You've got no idea, have you? She was tortured, you idiot!"

"Tortured?" the Doctor repeated incredulously. "Some discipline maybe, but hardly torture...is this one of your insane mind games?"

"No mind games!" the Master said grimly. "The truth! The High Council of Gallifrey, in their august wisdom, ordered her thrown into solitary confinement for weeks on end for daring to run away to find you. She was starved, repeatedly beaten and sexually abused. Never told you that, did she?"

"_WHAT_?" the Doctor exclaimed in absolute disbelief. "Oh, and I suppose you expect me to believe that she told _you _this, right?"

"No. When we were trapped in The Matrix, she had nightmares – I saw it all through the psychic link. How she screamed your name in her prison, but you never came. Too busy off doing your own thing, huh? Saving the Universe and all that."

"This is one of your lies," the Doctor denied, shaking his head furiously in rejection. "She would have told me. You're just using her to get some sort of revenge on me, that's what this whole thing has been about from the beginning!"

The Master laughed scathingly, confident now in his power to hurt his enemy. "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you, Doctor? Only, maybe it's time you learned that not everything in the Universe is about you! Did you never wonder where her nightmares came from, the same thing over and over again? Or did you just not notice? Did it never cross your mind to ask why she would never return to Gallifrey, her home, the place where she was born?"

The Doctor stared at him speechlessly. The Master could see the memories dawning unwillingly behind his eyes as he began to recall the isolated incidents, the small things which should have made him suspicious, the inconsistencies he had glossed over so often in his mad rush to complete whatever crucial mission he was involved in at the time.

"Nothing to say, Doctor?" he said savagely, deliberately driving the sword-thrust of his revelation firmly home. "The sainted physician...can't even look after his own family. You're a joke! So...unless she says otherwise, Ana stays with me – and you can tell that to your philandering freak friend too."

"Jack loves her," the Doctor answered dully, shock and grief written clearly across his face.

"Captain Freak loves everything with a pulse...and probably some things without one!" the Master scoffed derisively. "Like I said, Ana stays with me. So how about that, Doctor? _I win_! How does it feel?"

Before the Doctor could answer, they both simultaneously felt Tejana's silent scream of distress scorching across the psychic link. Together, they leapt for the stairs and were already halfway to the top by the time Jack ripped open the office door and yelled, "DOCTOR!"

Tejana was lying on the floor by the glass wall, her head supported on Martha's lap, the terrible sound of her wheezing evident even from the doorway. Without hesitation, the Master shoved Martha roughly aside and took the stricken Time Lady into his own arms.

"What happened?" he demanded. "What is it?"

"_Something...in...the coffee,_" Tejana choked out, her strangled voice almost inaudible.

The Master's head shot up, his eyes narrowed in deadly accusation as he surveyed the humans in the room. "What did you do? _What did you give her_?"

Crouching worriedly beside his daughter, the Doctor also fixed them with an imperative look. "Martha? Jack?"

"Ret-Con!" Jack blurted out. "We put Ret-Con in her coffee!"

"What the hell is Ret-Con?" the Master snapped.

"Torchwood's amnesia drug," the Doctor answered in a hard voice, his face dark with anger.

Tejana's condition was deteriorating rapidly. Her breathing was stertorous, growing more and more shallow by the second, and her eyes had glazed over. She lay limply in the Master's arms, no longer aware of her surroundings.

"She's going into respiratory failure," the Master said frantically, his head on her chest, listening for her double heart beat. "And one of her hearts has slowed almost to a stop."

"Martha, what are the components of the B67 formula?" the Doctor bit out. Then, as Martha hesitated, he snapped, "Does the formula contain salicylates? Come _on_, Martha, this is important!"

"Yes!" she responded. "To help make the tablets soluble in liquid."

The Doctor tensed, his eyebrows drawing together in an anxious frown. "It's aspirin poisoning. Time Lords are deathly allergic to aspirin. She needs a large dose of triglycerides to counteract the anti-platelet effect. Jack, do you have any chocolate in the Hub?"

"There's a vending machine on the landing," Jack answered, disappearing swiftly out the door. There was a sharp, tinkling sound of breaking glass and then he reappeared again, his hands full of chocolate bars. Rapidly, the Doctor took one, tore the wrapper off it and broke it into pieces, before firmly trying to force some into his daughter's mouth.

However, by this time, Tejana was unconscious and unable to respond, the poison in her blood beginning to shut down all her vital organs. No matter how hard he tried, the Doctor was unable to get her to take the chocolate she so badly needed. Holding her close, the Master felt an unexpected stab of pure fear. The salicylates in her system were retarding her cellular energy, preventing regeneration. She was dying in his arms. This couldn't be happening. He wasn't going to let it happen. He wasn't going to lose her, not like this!

"Give it to me," he said hoarsely, snatching the chocolate from the Doctor. Hurriedly, he threw a piece into his own mouth, feeling the sweetness dissolve on his tongue. Then he lowered his mouth to hers, his tongue forcing the melted chocolate between her blue-tinged lips, effectively transferring the life-giving dose of triglycerides from his mouth into hers. Over and over, he repeated the peculiar form of artificial respiration, desperate not to let her slip away from him. The drums were pulsating wildly in his head, his own personal mantra repeating over and over in his mind as he fought for her life.

_Never die. Never die. Never, never die!_

At last, she gave a small, wracking cough and her mouth relaxed under his. With an overwhelming wave of relief, he realised that the triglycerides in the chocolate were taking effect. Her breathing was stabilising, the rate and depth of her inhalations gradually strengthening.

"It's working!" the Doctor said thankfully, listening to her chest with his stethoscope. "Still some signs of cardiac arrhythmia, but both of her hearts are beating strongly again."

"Oh, thank God!" Martha cried, clinging on to Jack, grateful tears pouring down her face.

Confident that the crisis was past, the Doctor rounded on Martha and Jack in cold fury. "What in the name of Gallifrey did you think you were doing giving Ret-Con to a Time Lady? Are you completely insane? You nearly killed her!"

"We were trying to help!" Martha retorted, her chin tilted defiantly. "We wanted her back, the way she used to be. We wanted her to forget whatever it was that _he_ did to her in The Matrix."

The Master felt the white rage flooding through his veins, liquid and unstoppable, the unbridled hatred burning like a forest fire. Laying Tejana gently on the floor, he climbed to his feet, his black-clad form emanating deadly menace.

"I'm getting a bit _sick_ of your interference, Martha Jones!" he spat vengefully, aiming his laser screwdriver directly at her. Then there was a vicious, high pitched whine as he pressed the trigger and the bright beam of laser energy streaked towards her, carrying instant death in its wake. At the last instant, Jack threw himself in front of her, taking the lethal blast in a direct hit to his chest and falling in a crumpled heap to the floor. Amy screamed in horror, the sound echoing around the small room like a death knell.

"That makes eight hundred and seventeen times I've killed him now...some people just never learn!" the Master said with a cold laugh. "Now it's your turn, Miss Jones. You know, I really, really should have done this a long time ago!"

Martha stared at him like a deer in head-lights, transfixed by terror, unable to move.

"No, Master, stop!" the Doctor shouted, trying to scrabble across the floor towards Martha.

The Master ignored him, the animalistic urge to kill overriding everything else. He could hear the drums laughing in his mind, like a pagan god demanding a blood sacrifice.

_One...two...three...four. One...two...three...four. One...two...three...four._

The drums wanted this. Oh yes, they were going to _enjoy _this!


	11. Chapter 11

**_Author's Note: OK, I'm a grumpy-pants tonight, my computer had a big spasm and completely wiped this chapter, so I had to rewrite the whole thing, and it's massive! SO...if I didn't respond to your review personally, my apologies, because I had to redo my whole hard drive and lost heaps of stuff...hopefully no review e-mails, but I'm not 100% sure :0(_**

**_But a huge thanks to babybluepineapple, Aietradaea, XxCoffee-and-CreamxX (what a massive effort, catching up all those reviews, you are a legend), KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, Strange and Sad Angel and Omniac for all your reviews, I had the best time reading them all (made up for all my computer woes)!_**

**_To babybluepineapple - This is the chapter with the bit you requested in it - hope you enjoy!_**

_

* * *

_**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

Doggedly, Tejana forced her way through the swirling clouds of mist which seemed to encircle her. She could hear her own breathing, the air rasping painfully in her throat every time she inhaled; she could taste the sticky sweetness of – was that _chocolate_? - in her mouth; and she could feel warm arms around her, holding her close. Somewhere in the fog, she could hear the sound of raised, angry voices.

Suddenly, the warm arms were gone, leaving her feeling cold and bereft. Shivering in protest, she forced open her heavy eye-lids and tried to focus her blurry vision. To her horror, the first thing she saw was Jack's prone body lying close by, his blue eyes wide open and staring lifelessly into her own.

Then she heard the Master's distinctive voice, "That makes eight hundred and seventeen times I've killed him now...some people just never learn! Now it's your turn, Miss Jones. You know, I really, really should have done this a long time ago!"

And then the Doctor, yelling: "No, Master, stop!"

Struggling to understand what was happening, she realised the Master was on his feet just beside her. Clearly, he had been the one holding her a moment before. Now, she could see he had his laser screwdriver aimed and ready to fire at a cringing Martha Jones. The Doctor was standing in front of Martha, using his body to shield her.

"It was an accident, Master," the Doctor reasoned earnestly, his long brown hair flopping into his eyes, his hand extended towards the other Time Lord, palm outwards in a calming gesture. "Put the screwdriver away."

"You might prefer the company of fools, Doctor, but I don't!" the Master snarled. "Get out of the way!"

"I won't let you do this!"

"Unfortunately, you don't get a say! Now, _move_, or I'll kill you too!"

_Oh gods, somehow she had to stop him_! Concentrating hard, she managed to reach out and wrap her hand around his ankle, feeling the rough denim of his jeans under her fingers. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she recognised the strange parallel between her action and his in The Matrix when he had saved her from Rassilon, indelibly searing his mark not only into her flesh but also into her life from that moment onward.

"_Koschei_!" she gritted out, her voice not much more than a tortured whisper. "_No_!"

He looked down at her and she could see the wild look of psychopathic derangement in his brown eyes, the savage need for blood.

"She nearly killed you, Ana," he said harshly. "They put some sort of amnesia drug in your coffee. I can't just let that go. She has to die."

"Please," she said desperately, tightening her grip. "I'm asking you...I'm begging you..._don't_!"

The Master hesitated, his gaze locked with hers. A terrible conflict raged in his face, as his rational side struggled against the seething tumult of the drums. There was a deep, intense pause which seemed to last forever. Then, at last, his hand dropped. The Doctor nodded gratefully, the tension in his body relaxing, while behind him Martha gave a strangled sob of relief.

"Consider yourself lucky, Miss Jones," the Master said tautly. "Trust me, the next time you cross me, you won't be so fortunate."

With that, he pulled away from Tejana's grip and disappeared out the door. Exhausted, she lay back on the floor, all the adrenalin in her veins seeming to drain away now the danger was past. Beside her, Jack sucked in a sudden, huge gasp of air and his eyes flicked open. Amy rushed to him and helped him to sit up.

"Are you all right, Tejana?" the Doctor asked, his forehead creased worriedly.

"Just peachy, thanks," she replied flatly.

"He really would have done it. He was just going to kill me in cold blood!" Martha gabbled hysterically. "Can't you see, Tejana? He's completely insane, totally evil! We did it for your own good. We were trying to save you!"

"_Save me_!" Tejana spat, levering herself upright. "By putting _Ret-Con_ in my coffee? How dare you? I am the last daughter of Gallifrey. My people were the most ancient and advanced race in the entire Universe. I am nearly six hundred years old. I've seen things, lived through things, that you could never imagine in your wildest dreams. You're a twenty-seven-year-old human who had to suffer through one tiny year of danger and deprivation and somehow you think that gives you the right to decide what memories I'm allowed to keep?"

Martha stared at her in shock, stunned at the enormous anger in the Time Lady's voice. "I...I..." she stuttered.

But Tejana wasn't finished. Her icy gaze fell on Jack, who was rapidly recovering from his latest brush with death. "And _you_! You who had two years of your own memories stolen by the Time Agency, you who should know how important memories are – you would do that to _me_?"

"Like Martha said, we were trying to help..." Jack began.

Tejana wasn't interested in listening, the fury was just too extreme. She managed to climb to her feet, knowing she had to get out of the room, before she did something drastic.

"Do me a favour – next time you feel like helping me...don't!"

* * *

The Doctor watched Tejana leave, the door slamming behind her as she stalked out of the room.

Martha looked at him pleadingly. "You understand why we did it, don't you, Doctor?"

He looked at her gravely and then shook his head. "Doing something wrong for the right reason doesn't excuse you, Martha, either of you. And believe me, what you did was absolutely wrong." Then he followed his daughter out the door.

The Master had apparently disappeared back inside his TARDIS. Tejana stood on the landing outside Jack's office, leaning on the railing and looking listlessly out over the floor of the Hub. Her delicate features contrasted sharply with her long dark hair, her pale lips still faintly tinged with blue from the aspirin poisoning, her breathing unsteady. The Doctor stood behind her, watching her for a moment, wondering what was going on inside her head after the tense scene in Jack's office.

As always, she knew he was there. Moving to stand beside her, he felt her tension increase, as though she was steeling herself. This confrontation between them had always been going to happen, it had only been a matter of when.

"He hasn't changed, has he?" the Doctor said bluntly.

"If he hadn't changed, Martha would be dead right now," she retorted huskily, giving him a steady, challenging look. "The drums are so bad, worse than ever before. They're destroying him. If we can't find Rassilon soon, I don't know what will happen."

"And when we find Rassilon?" the Doctor asked quietly. "What do you propose to do then?"

She frowned, puzzled at the question. "Kill him, of course. What else?"

"Now _that _sounds like the Master's companion!" the Doctor exploded. "What else indeed?"

"Rassilon wants to shred the fabric of Time itself – he's going to destroy everyone and everything to bring the Time Lords back!" Tejana retorted angrily. "What do you suggest we do? _Nothing_, just like you did back on Skaro, when the Time Lords sent you to prevent the genesis of the Daleks? Well, excuse me, but _that_ worked out well for the Universe, didn't it?"

The Doctor stood as though turned to stone, shock written across his features. His daughter had never before reproached him for any of his actions relating to the Time War. In fact, she rarely spoke of the War at all, even to him. He had never realised how resentful she felt about the misguided mercy he had shown to the Daleks on their home planet so long ago. In that instant, it suddenly dawned on him that the War had damaged her too, in ways even he could never understand. The child who had once run away from Gallifrey to follow him so trustingly across the Universe had vanished. In her place there stood a Time Lady with weary, ancient eyes, eyes that had seen too much, eyes that were just like his own. Why had he never seen it before? What else had he missed? The Master's shocking revelation still burned across his soul. The Doctor had always known that he would win no prizes in the fatherhood department, but to have his innumerable shortcomings shown to him so plainly by none other than his old enemy was a bitter pill indeed.

Tejana bit her lip. "I'm sorry. I never meant to say that, Doctor...it just slipped out," she said regretfully, not meeting his stricken eyes. "The Master was right. We should never have come back here. It was a big mistake. All it's done is cause everyone pain."

Shaking her head, she turned away, heading down the stairs.

"You can't trust him, Tejana!" the Doctor tried one last time. "Whatever happened between you in The Matrix, it was a lie. Everything he does is a lie! You've known him all your life, you _know_ that."

"I said it to Martha and I said it to Jack. Now I'll say it to you – it is what it is, Doctor," she replied, glancing back up the stairs towards him. "Now, please, just leave me alone."

The Doctor allowed her to walk away from him, unwillingly remembering the look of determination on the Master's face as he had fought for her life on the floor of Jack's office.

_How ironic_, thought the stunned Doctor, _that of all the people in the Universe, the Master would be the one to best protect my daughter._

The Master was arrogant, ruthless, amoral and completely single-minded. If he decided that it was in his best interests to safeguard Tejana, he would turn entire planets into dust before he let harm come to her. Nothing and no-one would ever come before her. Unlike her father, who had always put everyone and everything before her.

Heartsick, the Doctor watched her vanish into the Master's TARDIS. He didn't know how or when it had happened, but he knew he had lost her.

* * *

As Tejana made her way across the floor of the Hub, her eyes brimmed with self-recriminating tears. What had she been thinking? She hadn't meant to say that, had never meant to hurt the Doctor. He had been hurt so much already, it was the last thing that she would ever want to do.

Suddenly, she found herself thinking back to the aftermath of The Year That Never Was, the bitter-sweet memory of the night she and Martha and Jack had watched the Doctor burn the Master's body.

_They stood, the three of them, shoulder to shoulder in the dark, silhouetted by the moon on the windy headland, the TARDIS a black, solid shape at their backs. Down below, amidst a circle of flaming torches in the disused quarry, the grieving Doctor laid the carefully-wrapped body of the Master on the ceremonial funeral pyre._

"_No-one__ will ever know who and what he really was," Martha murmured. "It really will be as if the year never was."_

_It was true. The cover-up had gone extremely well. The story was put about that the British Prime Minister had gone mad and had assassinated Arthur Winters, the President-Elect of the United States; that the Toclafane had only been a ruse to get the President-Elect on board _The Valiant _and had never really existed; that Harold Saxon had subsequently killed himself in a fit of insanity. The Archangel Network had been deactivated and now all those who had feverishly supported the Saxon campaign were too embarrassed even to admit that they had voted for a madman. Lucy Saxon had been incarcerated in Broadfell Prison where she awaited a secret, jury-less trial for her part in the terrible Year That Never Was._

"_Good to see that the Doctor's burning his body," Jack remarked savagely. "No coming back from that, Time Lord or not!"_

_Tejana silently winced at his words, watching the Doctor prepare the torch to light the fire. The Doctor had expected her to help with the funeral, in fact he had taken it for granted._

"_Tejana and I will take care of it," he had told Jack and Martha. "We are the last of the Time Lords. It's our responsibility and ours alone."_

_But Tejana couldn't do it. She knew she should be rejoicing at the Master's downfall, like everybody else. _ _And she _was _pleased, happy, delighted that yet another of his schemes had been foiled by the Doctor. She was glad that he was dead – after all, she had hated and despised him. __And yet...and yet...her mind, traitor that it was, kept drifting back to that one, odd moment of attraction between them on board _The Valiant_, the warm, gentle touch of his hands on hers, the feeling of his double pulse beating in time with her own..._

"_I'm sorry, Doctor," she had said. "I can't. I just...can't."_

"_Tejana, you are the last Time Lady of Gallifrey," the Doctor had replied stiffly. "It's your duty to stand witness."_

"_No," she had replied simply and finally. "Do what you must, Doctor, but I can't."_

_She had compromised a little, consenting to stand overlooking the pyre with Martha and Jack, but she refused to take part._

"_It's not about preventing him from coming back," she told Jack softly. "It's an old Gallifreyan custom. The funeral pyre is a warrior's send off."_

_Jack did a double take, staring at her incredulously._

_Martha was equally astonished. "Are you saying that the Doctor is giving him _honour_?"_

"_You're joking!" Jack snapped harshly. "That murdering bastard? If I had my way, I'd have left his body for the dogs!"_

_Tejana shrugged, not surprised that the humans did not understand. "He was a Time Lord. One of the last. The Doctor has given him his due."_

_Jack shook his head in disbelief. "You people amaze me. Of all the racial superiority...that guy was an insane, mass-murdering megalomaniac who nearly destroyed the Earth. Yet just because he was one of your glorified people, you and the Doctor still feel the need to give him an honourable funeral! Sometimes I think you're both as mad as he was!"_

_Tejana turned and looked at him, her expression suddenly stern. In her eyes he saw reflected the ancient arrogance and ancestral pride of the Time Lords, a billion years of history and racial dominance bred into her blood. Jack almost gasped, so other-worldly did she seem in that moment._

"_We are who we are, Jack," she answered quietly, as though that was explanation enough._

_In the quarry below, the Doctor lit the ceremonial torch and it blazed up in a shower of sparks against the dark. Tejana blinked at the orange flame, suddenly feeling a little dizzy. Jack was right about one thing – the Master wasn't coming back from this. He had always been such a part of the fabric of her life, he and the Doctor forever fighting it out among the constellations, the Doctor always mourning the loss of their early friendship. So many times they had thought him dead, only to have him return, regenerated or resurrected by the Time Lords. Only this time he had not regenerated of his own choice and there were no more Time Lords left to resurrect him. It was over, finished. She and the Doctor really were the last ones left._

_The funeral pyre flared up wildly. The Doctor paused for a moment, silently saying his final goodbye, and then he turned his back on the leaping flames and walked away._

Burning, _Tejana thought erratically, _everything burning...Gallifrey burning, the Time Lords burning, the Master burning, everything burning...

_For a moment, she couldn't breathe and she almost stumbled. Jack's strong hand cupped her elbow._

"_Easy," he said reassuringly. "It's over, Tejana. Everything's gonna be just fine now."_

_The Doctor approached slowly, his brown eyes still suspiciously moist, his long brown coat flapping in the breeze._

"_We'll...er...let you have a moment alone then," Martha said, pulling an oblivious Jack with her._

"_Oh, yeah," he agreed, getting it at last. "We'll just...um...be in the TARDIS."_

_They disappeared inside the blue box, leaving the two Time Lords facing each other._

"_Daughter," the Doctor said formally in Gallifreyan._

"_Father," she responded in kind._

_Tears shone in Tejana's eyes as she looked at him, seeing the deep grief in his face, her hearts heavy with all-consuming sorrow for everything that had been lost._

"_How did it all go so terribly wrong?" she said, her voice catching painfully in her throat. "How can it be that we are the only ones left?"_

_The Doctor couldn't answer at first, the anguish was just so overwhelming. "I don't know," he said eventually. "I just don't know."_

_Then he tried to smile, running his hand sheepishly through his spiky brown hair. "I've always been so proud of you, you know, from the very beginning. When you stood up to the Master on _The Valiant_, I almost burst with pride. You've grown up so strong and courageous and beautiful."_

_Tejana felt a shaft of pain lance through her. What wouldn't she had given to have heard those words in her younger days, before the Time War, when he was the centre of her Universe, the reason for everything, the idol at whose feet she had worshipped? But he had never said them._

_She turned her face aside. "The child of a woman you didn't love," she responded bitterly. "The responsibility and burden you didn't want."_

_The Doctor stared at her in shock. "No! No, that's not true. Tejana, I haven't been a good father, I admit it. So many times I haven't been there for you, so many times I left you...but I always, ALWAYS loved you. I know I don't say it enough, but you are, and always have been, my hearts and my soul."_

_He hugged her close and together they stood, father and daughter, the last of the Time Lords, watching the flames dancing in the night, before slowly turning away and leaving the blazing funeral pyre behind them. _

Pausing outside the Master's TARDIS, Tejana smiled sadly. That memory would always be one of her most treasured recollections of her father, his words something she would never forget. They so very rarely had any sort of discussion involving feelings or emotions. It just wasn't something the Doctor did. Funny, looking back on it now, that it had taken the supposed death of the Master to bring them closer together.

"And I will always love you, Doctor," she thought now. "The only problem is..." - she took a deep, shaky breath as she finally admitted it to herself - "I love the Master too."

* * *

The Master gripped the console tightly, his knuckles white with tension. The drums inside his head were excruciating, the rhythm of four pounding out in relentless torment, each beat flaying his cringing mind in agonising pain. He wanted so badly to scream, but he knew that if he started he would never, ever stop. Allowing Martha Jones to live had pushed his restraint to its uttermost limit. The insanity was closing in on him, the drums driving him mercilessly. He had never felt this out of control, even in the wasteland on Earth after his botched resurrection. He needed to crush, to destroy, to hurt. He wanted to set the Universe on fire just for the sheer pleasure of watching it burn. Destruction, devastation, desecration...the only things which would satisfy the drums, the only things which could bring him some peace, the only things that had ever given him any surcease from his pain.

Suddenly, he sensed that Tejana had entered the TARDIS behind him. He felt a dangerous blaze of anger, assuming that she had come to read him the riot act over killing her precious Handsome Jack yet again. Then, hard on the heels of his anger, there came a cold wash of fear as he realised he was going to harm her. He wasn't going to be able to hold back, the drums were just too powerful this time. It would be so easy just to backhand her savagely across the room; such a small amount of effort to shatter those slender bones one by one, to keep hitting and kicking until she screamed for mercy...

"Get out, Ana!" he rasped, frantic to get her away from him, needing to know she was safe. "The drums...if you stay, I won't be able to stop myself. I'm going to hurt you!"

She ignored his words and began to climb the stairs towards him instead, her expression unafraid.

"_I SAID GO_!" he shouted desperately, his self-control hanging by a thread.

But then she was standing in front of him, her dark blue eyes locked anxiously with his tortured brown ones. Hesitantly, she reached for him and he felt her cool hands tenderly cupping his feverish face, her long slim fingers probing his temples. He felt her physically flinch as the savage rhythm of the drums in his mind viciously struck at her.

"Let me help you, Koschei," she begged. "They're killing you."

"You can't," he growled. "No-one can help."

"I can't take them away, but I can help you bear it, if only for a little while," she answered softly. "Please."

All at once, he saw that he had been wrong - she had not been thinking of Jack, or Martha or even the Doctor when she had come in here. The only person in her thoughts had been the Master himself. Right then, no-one else even existed for her, only him. Gently, she pulled his forehead down until it touched hers. He felt the delicate touch of her mind joining with his, the first time she had voluntarily initiated deep psychic contact with him since they had left the ship of the Eternals. Immediately, the agonising sound of the drums faded. They were still audible, but it was as if they were somehow muffled, as if there was a barrier between him and the torturous sound; a calm, warm peace which streamed directly into him from her consciousness. He felt her body tense and knew that, as her serenity flowed into him, his pain flowed back into her. She was absorbing his agony, taking it as her own, sharing the burden along with him, rendering it bearable.

He knew he should pull away, knew that by accepting her help he was showing weakness, leaving himself vulnerable. But in that moment, he didn't care. He held her in his arms, cradling her comforting softness against him.

And, for the first time since he was a child, he allowed someone close enough to take away his pain.


	12. Chapter 12

**_Author's Note: Yay, no computer trouble this time, what a relief! And a huge wave to Omniac, soro1010, XxCoffee-and-CreamxX, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, babybluepineapple and Aietradaea for all your reviews. You all said such lovely things, I've been walking around with a big smile on my face! Thank you, thank you, thank you!_**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

Cautiously, Amy descended the stairs to the lower levels of the Hub, interested to see what other strange areas were to be found in the eccentric Torchwood headquarters. To be honest, it was an exploration born out of a desire to escape as much as out of curiosity. It was certainly a relief to get away from the tension in the main work area. First, there had been the arrival of Tejana and the Master, then the whole Ianto thing and then, worst of all, the awful scene in Jack's office when Tejana had been poisoned. Since then, the Master and Tejana had disappeared into their TARDIS and the Doctor had become withdrawn and morose, finishing off the complicated sensor device on his own. Jack and Martha were still holed up in the office, probably licking their wounds. You could almost cut the atmosphere in the Hub with a knife, so uncomfortable was it.

The worst part for Amy was that she felt like a complete outsider. As a relative newcomer to the Doctor's life, she didn't understand most of the dynamics that had gone on here today. For instance, what the hell was The Year That Never Was? It sounded like something weird out of a fantasy novel. She gathered that it had something to do with the Master being some kind of evil psychopath and doing terrible things to the Doctor, Tejana, Jack, Martha and apparently the rest of the Earth. And certainly, he hadn't seemed exactly sane when he had killed Jack – _for the eight hundred and seventeenth time_? - and threatened to do the same to Martha just now. But in that case, if he was so evil, why was Tejana with him? And the Doctor, while clearly wary of him, seemed to have some sort of deep-seated connection with him as well. It was all completely incomprehensible.

Then there was her surreal encounter with Ianto Jones. It was obvious from Jack's shocked reaction that Ianto had been very dear to him. Amy couldn't help but feel guilty about it all, as though she had somehow been to blame for causing Jack pain – but how had she been supposed to know?

But that was just it – there was so much about the Doctor's life that she _didn't_ know. All of these people shared a long history with him, full of places and events in which Amy could never take part. The Doctor was so enigmatic. Every time she thought she was getting to know him, something would happen to make her realise that she had only ever seen the tiniest part of the real man. Somehow it left her feeling jealous, resentful and a little sad.

Oddly, seeing the Master and Tejana together had also made her feel sad, as though there was an empty space in her heart that had once been full. Watching the Master fight so hard for Tejana's life had stirred something deep inside her, something sharp and painful, almost like...grief? As though something...someone...in her life was inexplicably missing, as though she too should have someone by her side that cared for her like that. But that was ridiculous, she had never found anyone that meant anything to her, not in that way. The only man in her life was the Doctor and he had made it clear that there would be no romantic involvement between them. So why then did she feel as though she had forgotten something important?

Absorbed in her thoughts, Amy made her way along a long corridor, poorly lit by overhanging fluorescent lights. At the end of the passage, she came to a metal ladder leading down to a long, narrow room with a vaulted ceiling. Along the left hand side of the room were a number of smaller chambers, which appeared to be holding cells of some sort. The front wall of these cells were made of clear, thick perspex, which Amy assumed was to enable observation of any detainees. The interior walls were made of rough stone and the floors were smooth concrete. Along the right hand side of the room were a row of similar cells, but these had heavy arch-shaped iron doors with a tiny square observation window in each, obviously designed to hold more dangerous prisoners. All the cell doors stood open, each of the stark little cubicles seemingly vacant. Amy couldn't help wondering with a shiver what sort of captives were usually incarcerated here.

At the end of the room was a heavy metal sliding door, which had the word "Archives" painted on it in large white letters. Shoving the door aside, Amy went inside for a look. This seemed to be the area where the Torchwood team stored all the alien artefacts they collected in the course of their work. It was a huge room, filled with floor to ceiling banks of shelving, loaded with a multitude of different-sized, labelled storage boxes.

Suddenly, she heard a noise, echoing like heavy footsteps, outside in the cells area.

"Hello?" she called nervously. "Is someone there?"

But nobody answered. For a moment, she stood like a statue, listening. She could hear nothing. Even so, she couldn't shake the eerie feeling that she was no longer alone.

"Doctor?" she tried again. "Jack? Is that you?"

Again, nobody replied. Panicking a little now, Amy's eyes rapidly scanned the nearby shelves for a possible weapon. With relief, she managed to locate an old ball-peen hammer which had apparently been used for nailing shut some wooden crates. Hefting the comforting weight of the hammer in her hand, she edged warily around the towering banks of storage, trying to get back to the door.

"Ianto?" she quavered. "Is that you again? If it is, Jack would really like to see you, you know."

All at once, she could hear breathing – a heavy, hoarse snuffling which resembled nothing remotely human. With a cold chill, Amy realised that whatever it was between her and the door, it wasn't Ianto Jones.

Then the lights flickered and went out.

* * *

The Web of Time was beginning to twitch again. All three Time Lords sensed it immediately, just as the strident, pulsating sound of the alarm on the Rhondium Sensor began to circulate around the work centre of the Hub, the jarring noise acting as an inescapable summons.

The Doctor, who had still been making minor adjustments to the machine, hurried to scan the information which was flooding in via the connection to the Rift. At the same time, the Master and Tejana quickly emerged from the TARDIS to join him.

"This data doesn't make any sense!" the Doctor exclaimed in a puzzled tone.

The Master frowned, absorbing the figures on the screen. "A multitude of time lines being manipulated from a place which doesn't exist? That can't be right. Is the sensor malfunctioning?"

Suddenly, Tejana felt a shudder of cold running up her spine, her eyes focussing inward as she felt something dark moving within the psychic link. It had been so long since she had felt the consciousness of another Time Lord apart from the Doctor and the Master. This presence was completely different, ancient and powerful and somehow...malevolent.

"No..." she murmured, trying to control the nausea she felt at the profane touch of the unfamiliar mind. "It's him. He knows we're here. Whatever this is...it's converging on us."

Just then, more alarms began to sound all around the Hub. All at once, all the doors leading to the outside slammed closed, reinforced iron panels sliding heavily across the exits, completely sealing them off. At the same time, the power cut out. The lights blinked off, the air-conditioning droned to a halt and all the computer systems went dead. The only illumination remaining in the central work area was the gentle glow of temporal energy within the Rift Manipulator.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked irritably, giving the keyboard a cantankerous thump.

"It's a lock down," came Jack's voice out of the darkness. He was rapidly descending the stairs, lighting his way with a large torch, followed closely by Martha. "It's a fail-safe system designed to prevent anything that slips through the Rift escaping out into the world. The Hub automatically locks down if an alien presence is detected within the complex."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows sceptically. "Not including Gallifreyans, I presume?"

"Of course not including Gallifreyans," Tejana spoke up impatiently. "The system is programmed to accept the presence of a Time Lord. It would have been a bit difficult for me to work here if the Hub went into lock down mode every time I walked through the door!"

"So what you're saying is that we're now locked in here, in the dark, with some sort of unidentified alien threat?" the Master said dryly. "Very comforting."

"Yeah, well, life's a bitch and then you don't die!" Jack retorted sarcastically, releasing the safety on his semi-automatic pistol. "All of you, keep your eyes peeled. Whatever it is, it could be anywhere."

Martha had her gun out by now too, carefully scanning the shadows for signs of movement.

"There's an emergency generator, it runs off Rift energy," Tejana said, tugging open a hatch in the floor near the Rift Manipulator. "I'll have it up and running shortly."

"Where's Amy?" the Doctor demanded suddenly, looking abruptly around the room. "I thought she was with you, Jack."

Martha and Jack exchanged a horrified look, realising that in the midst of the tension in the Hub, they had forgotten all about the red-headed girl.

"She said she was going for a look around," Martha gasped. "She was heading downstairs."

Jack was already moving towards the stairs leading to the lower level. "I'll get her," he said tersely.

"I'm coming too," Martha added, following in his wake.

* * *

The darkness in the Archive Room was absolute, a soul-destroying blackness with no relief. Amy couldn't see a thing. It was as though she had been struck blind. Her throat was dry with paralysing fear, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. Hunkering down behind the pile of wooden crates, she gripped the hammer with both hands and prayed that the creature, whatever it was, couldn't see in the dark.

The dreadful, laboured breathing seemed to get closer and closer in the thick, inky darkness. Terrified, Amy realised that the thing was tracking her using its sense of smell. She wanted to scream for help, but she knew that no-one could possibly hear her all the way down here – no-one except the creature that was stalking her.

She could hear the heavy footsteps approaching, nearer and nearer, until she could sense the thing standing just on the other side of the crates, listening and sniffing, trying to pin-point her exact location. Amy held her breath, not wanting her panicked gasps to give her away. Trembling, she grasped the hammer like a life-line, poised to defend herself.

Suddenly, there was a low whirr and the lights flicked back on. Blinking in the unexpected illumination, Amy struggled to regain her vision, instinctively knowing it might mean the difference between life and death. What she saw made her nearly pass out in fear. Standing only a short distance away, glaring down at her, was a large, roughly humanoid figure dressed in a blue boiler suit. But there the faint resemblance to a human ended. The creature's vilely distorted head was almost hairless, the features flattened and wrinkled, with no discernible nose and tiny, savage, pig-like eyes. Most frightening of all was the huge mouth, protruding with an array of sharp, fang-like teeth, the canines elongated like some sort of nightmarish vampire. Its hands were grossly enlarged, with vicious, long, curved talons.

It took one look at Amy and gave a triumphant, bestial roar. With one swift blow from its powerful arm, it smashed the crates aside, effectively removing the human girl's last frail protection. Snarling ferally, it leapt at her throat. Amy screamed and swung the hammer at its head with all her force. She heard the disgusting crunch of disintegrating bone as the weapon impacted with the creature's skull, even as she felt the excruciating pain of the razor-sharp fangs ripping into her shoulder, the warm blood gushing from her torn flesh.

Then there was a distant shout and a volley of gun-shots rang out, a hail of bullets peppering the creature's back. It gave a shriek of agony and collapsed, its full weight crushing down on Amy, and after that the girl knew no more.

* * *

Carefully, Jack carried the unconscious Amy back up the stairs to the central area of the Hub, which was now semi-functional due to the power from the emergency generator. Martha had improvised a bandage for Amy's shoulder using her jacket, but the material was already stained scarlet with blood. Taking the situation in at a glance, the Doctor rushed across and took the girl in his own arms.

"Amy! Amy! Is she all right? What happened, Jack?"

"It was a Weevil," Jack replied heavily. "It had her cornered in the Archive Room."

"She going to be OK, Doctor," Martha said, her tone full of professional reassurance. "It's just a flesh wound. It looks worse than it is."

"She's a feisty one!" Jack said admiringly. "She'd buried a ball-peen hammer in the thing's skull before we even got there. Any time she gets sick of travelling with you, Doctor, there's a job here at Torchwood waiting for her!"

The Doctor glared at him. "Right now, Captain, I'm not sure she'd be all that interested!"

"Take her into the Autopsy Room and put her on the table," Martha instructed. "I need to bandage that shoulder properly and give her some anti-weevil shots."

"NO!" Tejana snapped. "We stay together!"

Surprised at the vehemence in her voice, they all turned to stare at her.

"There's more," she said, her eyes narrowed in concentration, still feeling the ominous presence overshadowing the psychic link. "It's not over."

The Master's head lifted, as though he too could feel it. "A _multitude_ of time lines being manipulated..." he muttered, repeating his own words from earlier.

"Into the TARDIS!" the Doctor ordered, suddenly understanding.

But it was too late. Even as he spoke, a crowd of slavering Weevils began to pour from the interior doorways into the central area of the Hub, effectively cutting off their escape route to both of the TARDISes. In a few seconds, they were completely encircled by the snarling, bestial creatures.

Jack stared at them in shock, his gun automatically raised in a defensive posture. "But...this is crazy. Weevils aren't pack animals. I've never seen anywhere near this many at once before. There must be hundreds of them!"

"Multiple time lines, Jack," Tejana said bleakly. "I'm guessing...every single Weevil that has ever dropped through the Rift since Torchwood was established in 1879."

"OK, this is very, very, absolutely not good," the Doctor exclaimed, running his hand wildly through his floppy hair.

The Master looked at him ironically, one eyebrow raised. "You think? You know what, Doctor, this new regeneration of yours has a real talent for stating the obvious!"


	13. Chapter 13

**_Author's Note: Happy weekend, everyone! As always, big thanks to Omniac, babybluepineapple, XxCoffee-and-CreamxX, Strange and Sad Angel (x 2), KoscheiThePianist and Aietradaea for your reviews, so much fun reading them all._**

* * *

**CHAPTER 13**

"What do we do?" Martha demanded, her gun trained unwaveringly on the hideous, heaving mass of salivating creatures facing them. "Jack, you're the Weevil expert. _What do we do_?"

Jack just shook his head, completely at a loss. "In these numbers...I have no idea. Maybe if we shoot a few of them, it will discourage the others."

"Yeah, and if that doesn't work, maybe Santa Claus will come and save us," the Master said caustically. "Some expert you are!"

"If you've got a better idea, _Master_, we'd all love to hear it," Jack snapped, preparing to fire at the nearest Weevil.

"Wait..." Tejana cut in, studying the crowd of Weevils in puzzlement. "Why aren't they attacking us? I mean, Weevils aren't the most intelligent of creatures, but even they must realise they have us at a disadvantage. What are they waiting for?"

Sure enough, although every feral, pig-like eye in the Weevil pack was fixed hungrily on the small group of humanoids, none of them seemed to want to make the first move. Some of the larger brutes near the front of the crowd shifted impatiently, baring their fangs and snarling, but they still refused to come any closer.

"Are they afraid of us?" Martha suggested. "Of our guns?"

"Weevils don't know the meaning of fear. They're too stupid to be afraid," Jack answered. "If they feel threatened, the first thing they do is attack."

"This isn't an attack," the Doctor muttered, obviously thinking out loud as he reasoned it through. "This is _containment – _they're intentionally herding us all together. But why?"

Tejana caught her breath at his words, the hair standing up on the back of her neck. "Because something else is coming. Weevils are time-sensitive to a degree...they can feel it."

Even as she spoke, there was a deafening explosion in the air above them, accompanied by a forked blast of electricity like a lightning bolt. As one, the pack of Weevils cringed back, moaning and keening in distress. A pulsating ball composed of glittering blue filaments of light materialised overhead with an unpleasant humming sound, spinning wildly and showering fiery sparks across the central area of the Hub.

"Transmat sphere!" the Master yelled, hitting the deck and pulling Tejana with him. "Don't let it touch you!"

Instinctively, Jack and Martha followed his example, throwing themselves bodily to the ground. The blue ball swooped down, hovering menacingly over them. A metallic, mono-tonal voice grated out:

"_Life form scan in progress...Time Lord, origin Gallifrey, known as the Master, not required...Time Lady, origin Gallifrey, known as Tejanakaturadilena, not required...human, origin Earth, known as Jack Harkness, not required...human, origin Earth, known as Martha Smith-Jones, not required..."_

Slowly, deliberately, the sphere approached the Doctor and Amy. Warily, the Doctor placed the unconscious girl carefully on the floor and moved away from her, already guessing what the outcome of this was going to be.

"_Human, origin Earth, known as Amelia Pond, not required...Time Lord, origin Gallifrey, known as the Doctor...TARGET IDENTIFIED."_

"Now just a minute...can't we talk about this? I don't know what you've heard, but I'm really, really not much fun at parties...well, apart from the odd bar mitzvah and I'm not sure they count... " the Doctor rambled, stalling for time as he began to back away.

"It's after the Doctor!" Martha exclaimed, starting to get to her feet. "We have to help him."

"No!" Tejana said, pulling her back down to the floor. "If you touch it and you're not the intended target, it will deem you unnecessary and kill you instantly."

"_TARGET IDENTIFIED_," the sphere repeated, floating inexorably towards the Doctor. The Time Lord was quickly running out of room to manoeuvre, his back coming up hard against the luminous column of the Rift Manipulator. Swiftly, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the minacious blue ball.

"I'm warning you," he said threateningly. "I'm armed and dangerous."

The sphere ignored him and continued to advance. Desperately, the Doctor activated the screwdriver, the green diode at its tip glowing as it emitted a high-pitched, buzzing noise. The action had absolutely no discernible effect on the Transmat Sphere, which continued to steadily close in on him.

"You know, I had a really bad feeling that wasn't going to work," the Doctor said ruefully, just before the sphere engulfed him, the phosphorescent feelers of light expanding and snaking over his body like a nebula of writhing tentacles, effectively immobilising him. The sonic screwdriver fell uselessly from his suddenly nerveless hand, to land with a clang on the metal mesh floor.

"_TARGET ACQUIRED," _the sphere announced in a peculiarly self- satisfied tone, before shimmering with a fresh surge of electrical current and de-materialising, taking the Doctor with it.

* * *

The Doctor re-materialised in the centre of what appeared to be an ancient stone hall with an arched vaulted roof. The walls were formed of rock and seemed to be carved out of a natural cave, inlaid with swirling patterns of glimmering limestone. Elaborate niches, most containing amazingly life-like statues, were regularly inset around the perimeter of the hall.

The Transmat Sphere released him, the glittering skeins of light condensing and withdrawing until the semi-diaphanous orb disappeared altogether. Calmly, the Doctor dusted himself off, re-adjusted his bow tie and then began to take in his surroundings.

He was facing a large dais, on which stood two thrones - one large and commanding; and another, somewhat smaller, situated a little to the left of the first, placed at a slightly lower level. The thrones were flanked by a number of people dressed in hooded vestments. A coterie of black-dressed guards holding automatic weapons stood at attention against the walls.

The smaller throne was occupied by a young, black woman, dressed in an ebony silk robe. The Doctor immediately recognised her as Abigail Naismith, daughter of Joshua Naismith and erstwhile High Priestess of the Cult of Saxon. The larger throne was occupied by a much more imposing figure - a handsome, distinguished man, who appeared to be in his early sixties, with greying hair, ruthless eyes and the hard, arrogant features of a warrior. He was dressed in opulent, gold-trimmed, red velvet robes bearing the official insignia of the Lord President of Gallifrey.

The Doctor had no difficulty at all in recognising Rassilon.

"Welcome, my Lord Doctor," the Lord President said genially, as though the Doctor had arrived fashionably late to a social occasion. "Welcome to the Hall of the Mountain King."

* * *

"What happened? Where did he go?" Martha demanded, staring at the empty air where the Doctor had been standing a few seconds before.

"Off for a nice little chat with Rassilon, I'm guessing," the Master said grimly.

"But why?" Tejana said, getting to her feet. "What does he want with the Doctor?"

The Master gazed at her steadily. "Ana, the Doctor was the one who implemented the Time Lock, just before he used _The Moment_ to end the War. The easiest way to undo the Lock is to use his mind as a key."

"Oh gods..." Tejana gasped, suddenly understanding what he was telling her. "He wants to use the Doctor's mind to focus the temporal manipulator. He's going to try to manifest the Time Lords through the Time Lock into this time! But the power needed to bend the Web of Time to that degree would be astronomical!"

"That's all very interesting," Jack broke in urgently. "But I think right now we've got more immediate problems. Looks like the Weevils have just put us back on the menu!"

Snarling and gibbering, their eyes wild with hunger, the Weevils were beginning to edge closer and closer. They were clearly still nervous and unsettled by the recent temporal shifts in the room, but were growing in confidence moment by moment, their voracious craving for fresh meat gradually overcoming their hesitance. Jack and Martha put themselves into a defensive firing stance, their guns expertly aimed at the nearest creatures. The Master's laser screwdriver suddenly appeared in his hand as he too made ready to put up a fight.

All at once, the largest of the Weevils - a hideous, hulking monster - seemed to decide that it had waited long enough. Throwing back its head with a bestial howl, it charged forward in a rush. Immediately, it was felled by a well-placed bullet from Jack's gun. Seeing their leader fall, the other Weevils shrieked in rage and also swarmed forward, eager to avenge their loss. More gun-shots rang out, the staccato sound mingling with the repeated high-pitched whine of the lethal laser beam, and more Weevils fell away. But there were too many of them. Every time one was killed, another three surged forward to take its place. It was only a matter of time before the small group of defenders was overwhelmed and torn to pieces.

Frantically, Tejana sorted through her pockets, feeling for her own laser screwdriver. Instead, however, she found her old sonic screwdriver in her hand. She was about to return it hastily to her pocket when her eye chanced upon her father's screwdriver, lying abandoned on the ground where it had fallen. Suddenly she remembered him telling her the story of how he and Donna had come up against Matron Cofelia, nanny to the Adiposian First Family:

_Guess what happens when you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?_

"Sonic feedback!" Tejana whispered, her eyes lighting up exultantly. Torchwood had discovered some time ago that Weevils were uniquely sensitive to high-frequency sound transmissions. Snatching up the Doctor's screwdriver, she synchronised the setting on the two tools.

"Cover your ears!" she shouted. Then, as the others looked around to see what she was doing, she snapped angrily, "Damn it, would you just DO IT?"

Then she jammed the diode tips of the two screwdrivers together.

* * *

The Master had settled into an easy rhythm, firing smoothly at the oncoming horde of Weevils, cutting down the hideous creatures in swathes. The drums in his head were reasonably tolerable now. The brief respite granted to him by Tejana's intervention had enabled him to regain control for the time being. One...two...three...four...the war-like tattoo coincided in perfect synchronicity with the dancing laser blasts from the screwdriver, harmonising in a beguiling symphony of death, rejoicing in the release of the latent violence in his head. It wasn't as satisfying to kill these mindless beasts as it would have been to kill the interfering Martha Jones, but it still had a quietening effect on the incessant drumming.

_Probably just as well the Doctor isn't here_, he thought with derisive amusement. _He'd still be blathering on with some tedious sermon about how we should reason with these brutes instead of killing them, five seconds before they ripped us to shreds._

One good thing about Captain Freak – and in the Master's opinion there weren't many – he had no problem with killing. Shot after shot rang out from Jack's gun, unerringly picking off the front-running Weevils before they could get near enough to attack. Even Martha was getting in on the act – her marksmanship was not as accurate as Jack's, but she was competent enough.

The Master wondered briefly what effect they were having on the causal nexus by destroying these Weevils outside their own timeline. But then he dismissed the thought. After all, compared to the damage Rassilon was currently doing, a few dead Weevils weren't going to make much difference. And it wasn't as though they had a choice.

All at once, he heard Tejana yell, "Cover your ears!"

He flicked a glance back over his shoulder, seeing her crouching on the floor holding two sonic screwdrivers, only to hear her add, "Damn it, would you just DO IT?"

Realising what she was about to do, he hastily shoved his fingers in his ears as securely as possible, noting that Jack and Martha were doing the same. Tejana held the two sonic devices together, releasing a powerful wave of ear-splitting sound in a devastating ripple through the air. The piercing noise was painful enough for the humans and Time Lords, but it seemed to send the pack of Weevils completely mad. They shrieked in anguish, a horrible caterwauling outcry which echoed around the room, their splayed talons tearing insanely at their distorted faces. One by one, they collapsed into quivering, writhing heaps on the floor, moaning and gibbering in abject misery.

As the sound slowly faded away, Tejana was left holding the blackened, smoking remains of the two sonic devices. She glanced guiltily up at her shell-shocked companions, strongly reminding the Master of a little child caught doing something naughty.

"Oops, that's torn it! I think I might have overdone it just a little," she said, indicating the ruined mess which was all that was left of the Doctor's screwdriver. "Guess I'm really going to catch it this time."

For a moment there was a stunned silence. Then, as though he couldn't help it, Jack started to chuckle, before fully losing control and breaking into loud guffaws of laughter. By then, Martha was also giggling light-headedly, as though the sudden removal of danger had left her on the edge of hysteria. Looking at Tejana's crestfallen expression, the Master felt his lips twitch, until despite himself, he too had a grin on his face.

"Oh, I'm glad you all think it's so funny!" Tejana said crossly.

Behind them, the incapacitated pack of Weevils suddenly flickered and vanished. A gleaming crack trickled ominously across the floor, briefly shimmering with a halo of dazzling white time fire, before closing in on itself and disappearing, leaving no trace.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note:**

_**Big hi to all my wonderful reviewers: - KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, soro1010, babybluepineapple, Strange and Sad Angel, Omniac, Aietradaea, and XxCoffee-and-CreamxX – you guys are all totally amazing!**_

_**Sorry this chapter is so long, but couldn't be helped :( !**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

Curiously unsettled, the Doctor gazed around at the great stone hall surrounding him. It was strange, it all seemed so...familiar. Something in the beautifully carved walls and the high, arched ceilings spoke to him, sang to him like a half-forgotten memory. Suddenly, with a painful twisting in his guts, he knew that this place was not human in design at all. It was Gallifreyan, the marble floor, the intricately-patterned buttresses and coigns poignantly reminiscent of the archaic vaults that had once existed beneath the Citadel of the Time Lords, both containing and concealing the mysteries of the Eye of Harmony.

They were still on Earth, he could feel it. But that was impossible. There was no way Rassilon could have done all this in the three short months since his resurrection. And this place was very, very old, just as the halls he remembered on Gallifrey had been beyond ancient when history itself was young.

"I like what you've done with the place, Lord President..." he began, trying to hide his turmoil behind his usual flippant front. "It's very..._you_. But, the Hall of the Mountain King? That's a bit pretentious, even for you. Where exactly are we?"

"As impudent as ever, I see, my Lord Doctor," Rassilon said sternly. "To the humans, this place is known as the Isle of Avalon. A place of legend, a land caught between time and space, forever hidden from the sun, the place where the souls of the dead are reborn."

The Doctor stared at him incredulously. "The Isle of Avalon? As in, the place where King Arthur sailed after he was mortally wounded in his final battle? The place where he supposedly waits to rise again as Britain's King in her hour of need? Because, I have to say, if Arthur's around here somewhere, I've got a few words to say to him about his definition of 'hour of need' – I'm getting a bit sick of filling in for him, as it happens!"

"Many legends have existed about this place throughout the history of mankind, none of them even approaching the truth," Rassilon replied dismissively. "The Isle of Avalon is as old as the Earth itself."

"And what is the truth? What's so special about this place? And what does it have to do with Gallifrey?" the Doctor demanded.

"Can you not feel it, Doctor? Listen to your hearts – does this place not both attract you and repel you at the same time?" Rassilon said in cold amusement. "Have you never wondered why it is that you are so drawn to this pitiful, insignificant planet? Have you never considered why it so often stands at the heart of coincidence? Did it never occur to you to question why so many of the time-sensitive races have felt compelled to invade it, time and time again – Daleks, Cybermen, Eternals, Sontarans...the list goes on and on."

The Doctor shuddered despite himself. Rassilon was right, there was...something...here, in this place. Something as necessary to life as his own double heartbeat and yet, at the same time, something that was so anathematic to his basic nature that it sickened him.

"What are you talking about? _What is it_?"

"The centre of the Web of Time, Doctor," Rassilon answered complacently. "The Temporal Nucleus itself. Created by the original council of Time Lords at the dawn of time, it was hidden here on this obscure planet for safe-keeping, swathed in the concealing mists of Avalon, to sleep safely for all eternity, forever anchoring the threads of Time."

The Doctor's chest suddenly hurt as though all his ribs were broken, sharp stabs of horror wrenching through him. Suddenly he understood why this place felt so wrong and yet so right. As a child of time, existing eternally in a state of flux, the unchanging solidity of the Temporal Nucleus could not help but be an abomination to him. And yet, without it, neither he nor the rest of creation could continue to be. It was the ultimate paradox, the lodestone of time, the hitching point of chronology, the very centre of all life.

"The Temporal Nucleus is _here_?" he gasped. "On _Earth_?"

"Yes. This was one of Gallifrey's most closely guarded secrets throughout a billion years of history, for without the Temporal Nucleus, Time itself cannot stand," Rassilon said. "Until the chaos of the Last Great Time War, the Isle of Avalon was always guarded by a few select Time Lords appointed to maintain this sacred trust, to prevent the Nucleus ever falling into the wrong hands. As human-kind slowly dragged itself from the primordial swamps, the presence of our people occasioned many mystical legends – King Arthur, Merlin the sorcerer, the druids of Avalon, faeries, goblins and more."

"And now?" the Doctor rasped. "What now, Rassilon?"

Rassilon smiled. "It's time for the Nucleus to awaken from its long sleep, my lord Doctor. It's time for the Mountain King to call his children home."

* * *

"Still nothing!" the Master said disgustedly, giving the Rhondium Sensor an impatient whack with the side of his fist. "It just keeps giving impossible readings. Wherever Rassilon is, it doesn't exist in the time/space continuum. And if he's not in the time/space continuum, we won't be able to track him with this."

Tejana sighed anxiously. Things just weren't getting any better. Jack and Martha had taken Amy to the Autopsy Room and were busy tending to her wounds. Tejana and the Master were trying to work out their next move. With the Doctor gone, things had just escalated from serious to critical.

"We're running out of time!" she said urgently. "If Rassilon manages to break the Time Lock..."

The Master gave a grim smile. "I never could resist a ticking clock," he said wryly.

Tejana caught her breath, vividly remembering him saying that once before, years ago. A sudden, powerful flashback to the flight deck of _The Valiant _took her by surprise:

* * *

_The clock on the wall ticked loudly in the silent room. It was five minutes to three. Guards in black uniforms stood at regular intervals around the flight deck of the mighty ship, automatic weapons held at the ready._

_Francine Jones and her daughter Tish, both dressed in demeaning French maid uniforms, made themselves busy cleaning – it didn't do to appear idle in the Master's domain._

_Lucy Saxon, the Master's human and much-abused wife, lounged in a chair staring out a window at the beautifully-massed banks of white cloud, a fresh bruise livid on her face. She was dressed in a ridiculously revealing red satin evening gown, her Lord and Master's preference, and her expression was completely blank._

_The Doctor, crippled with age by the Master's use of the Lazarus technology, squatted in the rough tent which had been hastily erected for him, like a dog in a kennel, which was exactly how the Master intended him to feel._

_Tejana sat at the conference table, her manacled hands placed carefully before her. The harsh metal had roughly abraded the delicate skin around her wrists and blood was beginning to seep slowly under the wide cuffs. She made no sign. She would ask the Master for nothing._

_Surreptitiously, she slanted a glance at Francine Jones, who returned an imperceptible nod. They were ready._

_Suddenly the silence was shattered as the Master arrived, a whirlwind of energy as usual._

"_Ah, time for my massage," he said cheerfully. "Tejana, if you wouldn't mind..."_

_Tejana stood obediently and the Master smiled in satisfaction. Lucy, who had leapt to her feet as soon as he entered the room, took one tiny, protesting step forward and then stopped, silently wringing her hands._

"_Keys!" the Master ordered, and Tejana's personal guard handed him the keys to her manacles. His eyes glittering with ill-concealed malice, he unlocked the handcuffs himself. It was so easy to press their buttons, little acts of mental torture, wearing them down day by day. Forcing Tejana to give him a massage like a menial was a marvellous way to teach the proud Time Lady her new place as his slave. It also had the added benefit of further humiliating her father, the Doctor, as well as trampling on the remains of Lucy Saxon's broken heart – all of it such fun to do._

_As the manacles fell away, Tejana's ravaged wrists came into view. The Master "tsk-ed" impatiently._

"_We'll have to do something about that. Can't have my favourite masseuse out of action. Have I told you how wonderful Tejana's hands feel, Lucy? Maybe you two should get to know each other better. That might be fun!"_

_With that, he cast his jacket on to the table and plonked himself into a chair._

"_Now, massage!" he commanded._

_Tejana heard the satisfying clunk in the top pocket of the jacket as it struck the table and glanced at the clock. One minute to three. Smiling secretly, she raised her hands to his shoulders and began to knead them, feeling the strong muscles begin to relax under her deft touch. The Master sighed in contentment, his eyes closed._

_And then chaos broke loose. A series of huge explosions in the bowels of the ship sent sparks arcing across the control console. Alarms wailed crazily and smoke drifted across the room as electronics shorted out with a deafening bang._

"_CONDITION RED! REPEAT: CONDITION RED!" an automated voice intoned._

"_What the hell!" the Master exclaimed angrily. Leaping to his feet, he charged across to the stairs leading to the control console and ran up them, trying to ascertain the problem. Tejana was right behind him, exploding into action like a coiled spring, skidding to a halt at the base of the stairs, poised in readiness. At that same moment, Francine seized the Master's jacket and hurled it across the table to Tish, who caught it perfectly and flung it to Tejana in one smooth motion._

_Sensing the movement behind him, the Master whirled around – but it was too late. Tejana had freed the deadly laser screwdriver from his coat pocket and was holding it trained on him, her eyes narrow with purpose._

"_Ohhhh, I see," the Master nodded, putting his hands up in surrender._

"_I _will_ kill you," Tejana said steadily._

"_NO!" the Doctor shouted. They had not included the wizened old man in their big plan, because Tejana had known exactly what he would say. "Tejana, listen to me! Don't do it! You mustn't do it!"_

_The Master smiled mockingly. "All these years and he could never do it," he chuckled. Then his smile was gone and he dropped his hands._

"_I am not the Doctor," Tejana warned coldly. "And I _will _do it!"_

_She aimed at the Master, who was now coming down the stairs towards her._

"_NO!" the Doctor howled. But Tejana pressed the trigger anyway, waiting for the bright beam to erupt and end the nightmare for them all. To her complete horror, nothing happened. The Master laughed wildly and she felt his strong hands closing on her injured wrists, forcing them back. With a scream of pain, she released the screwdriver into his waiting grasp. He struck her violently across the face and hurled her into the floor with a resounding concussion. For a moment she nearly passed out, stars spinning crazily behind her eyes._

"_Tejana!" the Doctor cried._

_She could hear the Master's steps as he came to stand over her. "Not such a chip off the old block after all, are you?" he taunted. "You really would have done it."_

_He held up the screwdriver for them all to see. "Isomorphic controls!" he spat. "Which means...they only work for me! Like this!"_

_A savage beam of light burst from the screwdriver and struck Francine in the right arm. She screamed and fell to her knees._

"_Mum!" Tish yelled in fear._

"_Say you're sorry!" the Master commanded._

"_Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Francine gabbled, terrified that a further blast would be forthcoming to end her life. But the Master ignored her and focussed on the crumpled form at his feet._

"_Now, my lady," he hissed, his voice quiet and deadly. "KNEEL to your Lord and Master!"_

_Tejana stiffened in anger. She knew he was probably going to kill her, but she didn't care. Slowly, painfully, she raised herself to her feet and stood before him, eye to eye._

_Her chin tilted proudly and her voice dripped contempt. "I am...a Time Lady of Gallifrey," she said with icy emphasis. "I...do not...KNEEL!"_

_Fury flooded the Master's handsome face – but, oddly, she also thought she saw a flash of respect. Without breaking eye contact with her, his screwdriver swung around and pointed once more at Francine. The older lady whimpered in horror._

"_KNEEL!" he repeated. "Or Martha Jones will have to manage without a family!"_

_For a moment suspended in time they stood, nose to nose, his wicked brown eyes locked with her midnight blue. Then, suddenly, Tejana smiled. "Forcing a body to kneel is not the same as the mind, the hearts and the soul," she told him and dropped to her knees, bowing her head in exaggerated mockery._

"_If you say so," he sneered. "Now, stay there, while we get on with some real business,"_

_He gestured at Lucy, who rushed forward eagerly to help him into his jacket. "Didn't you learn anything from the blessed Saint Martha? Siding with the Doctor is a very dangerous thing to do!"_

_Hours later, Tejana lay on the narrow cot in her prison cell, resting her aching head against the wall. She didn't know which hurt more, her damaged wrists, nearly broken by the Master in the tussle for the screwdriver, or her pounding head, throbbing both from when he had backhanded her and from when she had impacted with the floor. _

_Mercifully, the guards had neglected to chain her hands tonight. Her ankles had been manacled to the wall instead, attached to a long chain, so she was able to move about a bit if she wished. The day had been a very long, anguished one. First, the failure of their long-planned coup. She had heard the guards talking among themselves and gathered that both Jack and Clive Jones had been severely punished for their part in the diversion below decks. Jack had been killed again and again, they said, for the Master's entertainment. Jack was an immortal and could not die, but he could feel pain. Tejana hated to think what the Master had put him through. The renegade Time Lord was so paranoid – she should have guessed that he would have implemented isomorphic controls on his toy, it was a simple security measure. But she was not sorry they tried, even if it was just to show the Master that he had not completely crushed them._

_But the Doctor...oh, the Doctor! Tejana closed her eyes wearily, determined to hold back the defeated tears. The Master had decided to send an emphatic message to Martha Jones. He had heard that she had returned to Britain after walked the Earth for a year at the Doctor's request. Rumours abounded across the world that she was the one who would kill the Master and save the Earth. So the Time Lord had opened a global broadcast, so that she would be sure to see it. And then he had turned his aging device on the Doctor once more, progressing his deterioration from one hundred years to his true age of over nine hundred years. It had been horrifying to watch. The Doctor was still alive, but only just, shrunk into a tiny, dwarf-like figure with huge sunken eyes. The Master had laughed and imprisoned him in a bird cage, suspended on the flight deck like a trophy for all to see._

_Tejana shuddered. She knew they all had to stay strong until the Doctor's plan came to fruition. But sometimes she wondered if any of them would make it through alive. Gingerly shifting her head to a more comfortable position, she tried to get some sleep, hoping to ease her blinding headache. She was disturbed a short time later by the opening of her cell door. She sat up abruptly, expecting to see her black-clad guard. To her horror, instead, the Master walked into the room. With a sinking feeling, she realised she had been foolish to assume it was over. The Master would never allow her little assassination attempt to slide without some appropriate reprisals._

_The Master smiled, taking in his captive's untidy, tumbled mass of black hair, the glaring red mark from his signet ring marring the pale perfection of her cheek, the steady dark blue eyes watching him with apprehension._

"_Good evening," he said mockingly. "Oh...don't worry...I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you."_

_Tejana stared at him, suddenly realising that the tray in his hands held medical supplies._

"_I told you earlier," he continued, sitting beside her on the bunk. "Those wrists need some attention. Can't have you getting sick, now can we? That wouldn't do at all."_

_Silently, she watched him prepare some disinfectant._

"_You don't go through as many regenerations as I have without picking up some first aid skills," he told her. "Hands, please." _

_For a moment, she hesitated, unwilling to obey even this simple command. But she knew he was right, the open sores on her wrists were at huge risk of infection. She gave him her hands._

"_Of course, I could have had one of my minions attend to it," he continued. "But I thought it might be nice to have a little chat."_

_Tejana braced herself for pain, but his touch was surprisingly gentle as he began to clean the abrasions._

"_Nothing to say?" he asked mildly. Then his tone hardened. "How about 'Thank you, Master' ?"_

_She sighed inwardly. It had been such a long day, she couldn't fight any more. His hands on hers were warm and soothing, almost hypnotic in their touch. How long since someone had touched her? She couldn't even remember._

"_Thank you, Master," she repeated in a dull voice._

"_That's better," he said in satisfaction. "No smile though? No? Not even a little one? We've known each other a long time, haven't we? Do you know, until you smiled at me today, I never realised how little you do it? So whatever happened to turn you into such a sad-sack?"_

_Tejana didn't reply. She wasn't about to spill out her life story to the Master. He reached for some aloe vera cream and began to smooth it over her injured wrists. The cool cream brought blessed relief from the insistent burning pain._

"_Of course, travelling with the Doctor can't be much fun," he mused, clearly not expecting a response. "Always saving this and saving that. Last I heard, you'd got sick of it and went to live with that idiot Turlough on his insipid little planet. So why are you back on Earth?"_

_Tejana took in her breath sharply, surprised that the Master knew about her and Turlough. But then, he was the Master, he made it his business to know the things that would hurt his enemies the most. For a moment, she almost told him to go to hell, but the movement of his hands on her wrists felt so warm and good, almost strangely sensual, and she couldn't summon the required anger._

"_The Daleks attacked Trion," she answered haltingly. "It was at the very beginning of the Time War. I went back to Gallifrey, begged the High Council for help. Romana was the President then, I thought she would listen. The Daleks were a cancer, slowly spreading through the Universe. But the Time Lords refused. Turlough was killed and Trion was destroyed. I couldn't stop it, any of it. You were right before, when you said I'm not a chip off the old block."_

_The Master finished with the salve and began to deftly bandage her wrists. "So where was Daddy dearest during all that?" he asked sarcastically._

_Tejana shrugged as carelessly as she could, trying not to show how much that question still pierced her. "I don't know."_

_He paused and looked at her closely. "Off doing his own thing as usual, huh? What a surprise."_

_Her eyes flashed angrily. "Don't think you can use it to turn me against him. It was a long time ago, it's over!"_

_"But you blamed him for a long time, didn't you?" the Master said with a knowing smile.  
_

_She closed her eyes to shut out the memories. "Maybe. I told you, it was a long time ago, we got past it. That's what families do."_

_This last was a subtle dig at the Master, who had no family left. He appeared serenely oblivious though, as he secured the last of the bandaging. Gently grasping her hands, he turned them over to inspect his handiwork. Suddenly, his fingers tightened almost cruelly, trapping her hands within his own._

"_And you and the oh-so-handsome Captain Jack?" he demanded silkily. "I've seen the way he looks at you. Are you lovers?"_

_Again, the urge to tell him to go to hell bubbled up in her throat, as their eyes caught and held. To her horror, she felt her breath caught in her chest, a frisson of sexual awareness tingling deep in her belly. He was so very close and his strong fingers felt so good..._

_Snapping herself back to reality, she tore her gaze away. "Not that it's any of your business," she snarled. "But no, we're not!"_

_But the Master refused to let her gaze drop. Imprisoning both her hands in one of his, he ran a questing finger up her throat, under her chin, forcing it up until their eyes met again. His face was intent now, no trace of mockery evident._

"_I'm guessing that isn't by his choice," he said huskily._

_Tejana flushed as the brown eyes searched her face, the moment stretching on and on. Then, abruptly, it was over. He released her wrists and got to his feet._

"_Poor old Captain Jack..." he sneered. "Absolutely dying to screw a Time Lord and neither you nor the Doctor will oblige him."_

_Shaken, but unwilling to admit it, Tejana lifted her chin defiantly. "Maybe you should ask him on a date then."_

_The Master laughed. "Oh, but I'm a happily married man, don't forget. Sweet Lucy Saxon, my ever faithful companion. I think I shall seek her out. With all the business of running this loathsome little planet, I have been quite neglecting her."_

_He picked up the tray and moved to the door, which was dutifully opened by a guard._

"_Perhaps the next time I kill Captain Freak, you will accompany me," he said coldly. "It's so entertaining thinking up new and more painful ways to do it, over and over again. Good night then."_

_With that, he was gone and the door slammed closed again. Tejana exhaled loudly, her head spinning in crazy circles. She must have some weird kind of concussion. To be attracted to the Master, even for one tiny instant – she must be completely losing her mind! It was obviously much too long since she had been intimate with anyone – next time Jack propositioned her, she was going to take him up on it, that was for sure! Although, given the current situation, that wasn't likely to be any time soon._

_The Master had always been compelling and hypnotic, full of deadly charm. She had been tired and unusually susceptible, she excused herself. But deep down, she knew that the Master had not planned for their encounter to go like that. She had seen in his eyes that he was as surprised as she._

_Surreal, she thought, settling down again for sleep. A surreal end to a bizarre day._

_

* * *

_

Standing with the Master in the central work area of the Hub, Tejana blinked at the acute memory. Surreal was the word – so many things had changed in such a few short years. She had been so angry with Jack and Martha for the Ret-Con incident, but, really, who could blame them? Not so long ago she had been doing her best to kill the man who stood beside her, now all she knew was that she didn't want to live without him. And she didn't even really know how it had happened.

The Master noticed her abstracted gaze. "What?"

"Nothing," she said. "Nothing at all."

Gently, he cupped her cheek with his hand. "It will all be OK, Ana," he told her reassuringly.

Still half-caught in the past, she almost flinched away from his touch. Then she gave him a wan smile. "Yeah. Yeah, of course it will."

* * *

_**Another Author's Note: As you might already have gathered, I am usually an absolute stickler for canon. But in the flashback in this chapter, I have changed things a little, with Tejana trying to kill the Master instead of the Doctor. Three reasons for this: firstly, I don't think the Doctor would try to kill him anyway – he said he was there to save him, after all; secondly, the Doctor already had a plan to save the world, so I don't think he would have jeopardised it by trying to steal the Master's screwdriver – that was something a more impatient person might do (like Tejana, in my story); thirdly, it just fits in a whole lot better with my story if Tejana does it, so there, lol! SO, anyway, if you don't like it, sorry about that, but there it is.**_


	15. Chapter 15

**_Author's Note: Thank you so much everyone for your reviews - there were some lovely long ones in there which were fantastic to read and to reply to (big warning to all here, get me started on Doctor Who, especially character motivation, and I will talk your ear off, lol!) Anyway, thanks again to xxTeam-Masterxx, babybluepineapple, soro1010, Aietradaea and Omniac for all your comments!_**

* * *

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

The Doctor stared in complete revulsion at the smug, self-satisfied Time Lord seated before him. Sickening images from the Last Great Time War burnt through his brain – the Nightmare Child at the Gates of Elysium, the appalling carnage at the Fall of Arcadia, the horror of the Skaro Degradations. He had tried to stop it all, he had tried so hard, but in the end his own people had been changed to the core, had become monsters no different to the Daleks they fought. And so, the Doctor, the man who had chosen his new name when he left the Academy out of a desire to heal, became instead the killer of his own kind. Was it all to be for nothing? The painful agonising choice he had made so long ago, to wipe his own planet from the heavens, along with the Daleks? The dreadful, crushing burden he had carried ever since, the knowledge that his own people had perished at his hand?

The Master's voice echoed in his mind: _Do you remember how we worshipped Rassilon when we were kids? The great leader, the big role model, the glorious legend that every child in the Academy wanted to grow up to be like? Who'd have thought back then that we'd end up trying to stop him ripping the Universe to shreds?_

"You're planning to use the Nucleus to break the Time Lock," he said unbelievingly. "You're going to bend the Web of Time to bring the Time Lords through to this time stream. You can't! The amount of energy required to do that...you'll shatter the Nucleus, the threads of Time will unravel, the whole of history will completely erase. There'll be nothing left!"

"I am the last of the original Council of Three. It was I who harnessed the power of the Eye of Harmony to form the Nucleus," Rassilon spat imperiously. "I am the Great Creator, the one who reached into Chaos and forged the meta-structure of the space/time continuum, the cradle of the Universe. I am the Father of Gallifrey, the Lord of all Time Lords. It is my right to give and to take away as I see fit. This time I will _not_ be prevented from enacting the Final Sanction."

"No!" the Doctor cried. "You have to stop. You will be responsible for death and destruction on an unimaginable scale!"

"But the Time Lords will survive, my Lord Doctor, and that is all that matters," Rassilon retorted. "We will survive and we will prosper, shedding these physical bodies and dwelling eternally in the realm of liberated beings, in infinite bliss, infinite perception, infinite knowledge and infinite energy. The paltry fate of the rest of Creation is insignificant to me."

"I won't let you do this! I've stopped you before. Somehow I'll stop you again!"

The Lord President laughed derisively. "Not this time. I have adapted the primitive technology on this pitiful planet to create a temporal manipulator and I have used it to awaken the Nucleus. Already the temporal instability is spreading throughout the Web of Time, increasing in frequency and complexity. Soon the structure of the Web will be sufficiently weakened for me to manifest the Time Lords into this time. All that remained was for me to secure the key to release them from the prison of the Time Lock and now I have that – _you_, my Lord Doctor."

The Doctor shook his head, his eyes wild. "I won't help you!"

"You will have no choice," Rassilon said, his wintry eyes grim. "Once your mind interfaces with the manipulator, you will be unable to resist the power of the Nucleus. You, the Great Betrayer, will die knowing that you have been instrumental in the resurrection of that which you tried so hard to destroy, your own people!"

With that he gave a sharp gesture towards Abigail Naismith, who ordered crisply, "Guards, take him away!"

"No!" the Doctor exclaimed, as two of the guards marched to his side and seized his arms in an iron grip. "No, no, no, no...don't you understand what he's going to do? He's talking about destroying the whole Universe! _Listen_ to me, you can't help him do this! You're all going to die as well!"

"My glorious Lord will reward those who serve him well," Abigail said, tilting her nose up haughtily. "He has prepared a place for me, safe from the apocalypse which will fall upon those who are not worthy."

"Your glorious Lord?" the Doctor snapped, digging in his heels as the guards began to drag him away, desperate to get through to the delusional woman. "Last I heard, you were supposed to be the High Priestess of the Cult of Saxon, waiting for the Master's return. A bit fickle, aren't you?"

"Lord Rassilon is infinitely greater than the Master," she answered serenely. "Three years ago, in my father's mansion, he undid the great works of the Master with but a flick of his wrist."

"Oh, but you didn't stick around until the end of the game, did you?" the Doctor retorted. "I don't suppose Rassilon told you how the Master ended up blasting him back into the Time Lock? No? OK, then, how about when he tried to kill my daughter in The Matrix and the Master stopped him that time too? And believe me, the Master isn't too happy with Rassilon right now. I'm thinking you might have backed the wrong horse."

"ENOUGH!" Rassilon roared furiously, livid at the mention of his previous defeats. "The Master is _nothing_, a diseased madman only. You show your desperation, my Lord Doctor, when you look to your most bitter enemy for deliverance."

The Doctor gave him a twisted smile. "Oh, he won't do it to save me. He'll do it to kill you. But the end result will be the same. And the one thing I know about the Master is that he never, ever gives up."

* * *

"I give up!" the Master exclaimed in frustration, turning his back on the useless Rhondium Sensor and pacing up and down. "This is getting us nowhere. There must be another way."

Then he stopped abruptly, staring across the room at the Doctor's TARDIS. "Ohhhh...oh, but there is!"

Tejana frowned, following his gaze but seeing nothing remarkable. "What?"

"The Doctor's TARDIS is symbiotically linked to his mind!" he said jubilantly. "And wherever the Doctor is, Rassilon will be. All we need to do use the psychic link to derive the necessary coordinates to follow him."

Her face lit up. "Then let's go!"

They were heading across to the TARDIS when another voice broke in. "You're not going without me."

Turning, they saw that Jack had reappeared on the floor of the Hub. His arms were crossed defiantly, a look of determination on his face.

"Oh yeah?" the Master shot back. "What makes you think you're welcome?"

"What makes you think I was talking to you?" Jack countered implacably.

Tejana felt an invisible band tighten around her chest. Since she had returned from her ordeal in The Matrix, Jack had been almost constantly by her side, her automatic companion of choice, not only in times of danger but in every other situation as well. Looking at him now, she wondered just how much damage she had done without ever realising. Maybe Jack had been right – maybe Time Lords were like candle flames, attracting humans like moths, only for them to burn and fall away, leaving the candle to shine on, irresistibly tempting a succession of new moths.

"Come on, both of you," she said shortly, not wanting to think about it. "The Doctor will need us all. And you can both stay away from the console. The TARDIS doesn't like either of you, so I'm driving!"

"Hang on a minute..." the Master began in a surly tone.

"Two words, Koschei," she snapped. "PARADOX MACHINE!"

With that, she turned her back on them both and marched across to the Doctor's time machine, using her own key to open the door.

* * *

The Master cursed silently as he followed the other two into the TARDIS. He didn't want Jack to come with them. Not just because he despised the other man – which he did – but because Jack's eyes were too sharp. He never stopped watching the Master, the savage distrust in his blue gaze a palpable thing.

The Master wanted Rassilon dead. He wanted the drums gone. He would do anything, cooperate with anyone, to achieve those aims. But after that...after that, all bets were off. His hand slipped into his pocket and fingered the tiny device hidden there. If there was one thing he had learned in his nine hundred years of life, it was to plan ahead. It always paid to have a back-up plan. And as back-up plans went, this one was a doozy. All he needed was a chance to implement it.

As Tejana had predicted, he felt a wave of animosity from the TARDIS as soon as he entered through the doors. The time machine had not forgotten the pain he had inflicted on her when he had cannibalised her systems to create his paradox machine. She hated him for who he was, the things he had done. On the other hand, she resented Jack for _what_ he was, something unnatural, a fixed point in time, a _freak_. In the face of the affront caused by the two men, only Tejana's familiar, calming presence ensured her cooperation. The Time Lady's hands moved deftly over the controls, trying to align the navigational computer with the psychic link.

"It's not working," she said in dismay. "The psychic link isn't enough. Whatever Rassilon is using as a shield is still blocking me!"

"We need the Doctor's biometric code," the Master told her urgently. "If you can feed it through the briode nebuliser, you can use it to concentrate the link."

Tejana looked at him blankly. "But we don't have it!"

The Master raised his eyebrows. "What, don't tell me Captain Freak outgrew his hand fetish? Given up wandering around with the Doctor's severed hand in your back-pack, have you?"

Jack gave him a look which could kill and Tejana said warningly, "Koschei!"

He raised his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. "Hey, not my fault he has issues!"

"The next issue you'll be dealing with will be how to cope with a broken neck!" Jack snarled.

"We don't have the hand any more," Tejana interjected hastily. "It was the catalyst for the instantaneous biological Human/Time Lord meta- crisis between the Doctor and Donna Noble. The hand regenerated into a half human/half Time Lord clone of the Doctor, who is now living in a parallel universe."

The Master blinked, somewhat taken aback by the lengthy explanation. "Whoa, sorry I asked!"

"I thought you had the Doctor's biological code stored in your screwdriver," Jack suggested. "The whole Lazarus aging thing?"

"Not any more. _Somebody_ deleted it after I died on _The Valiant_!" the Master grunted, looking meaningfully at Tejana.

"Oh, like I was going to leave technology that dangerous lying around in a screwdriver!" she retorted. "So now what?"

The Master thought hard. "If there was any data ghosting when the Transmat Sphere de-materialised with the Doctor, the Rhondium Sensor may have picked it up. With a bit of work, I might be able to extrapolate some relevant bio-data from that."

Quickly, he left the TARDIS, heading back out on to the floor of the Hub. It was deserted, with Martha still tending to Amy in the Autopsy Room. Upon reaching the Rhondium Sensor, he typed in a few rapid commands on the terminal and a stream of figures began to flow across the screen. While that was processing, he reached surreptitiously into his pocket and withdrew the tiny black gadget. Carefully keeping his back to the TARDIS, he glanced around to make sure no-one was watching. Then he squatted down and attached the device imperceptibly to the base of the Rift Manipulator. Standing once more, he returned to the Rhondium Sensor, a secret, satisfied smile on his face.

* * *

After the Master left the TARDIS, Tejana kept her head down, ensuring her eyes remained averted from Jack, saddened by the tension that now existed them. Her anger over the Ret-Con incident had evaporated by now and all she wanted was to go to him and put her arms around him. But everything had changed and she knew that she no longer had that right. It wasn't so long ago that Jack had been the one person in the Universe she felt most comfortable with, fixed point in time or not. The loss of their friendship left a gnawing ache inside her.

It appeared that Jack felt the same regret, because she felt him come to stand close beside her. Then he tilted her chin up so their eyes met.

"I hate the way things are between us right now," he said huskily, stroking the tumbling curls away from her face.

Tejana gave him a wistful smile. "Me too."

"You were right," he admitted. "After what the Time Agency did to me, I'm the last person who should have been trying to Ret-Con you. But I'm still not sorry we tried, because I love you."

She shook her head in protest, not wanting to hurt him. "Jack, don't..."

"No, let me say it, please. I never said it to Ianto, not once, not even when he was dying in my arms. Now I'll never get the chance and I'm going to regret it every day for the rest of my life. I'm not going to make that same mistake again!" Jack said fiercely, his hands coming up to grip her upper arms.

"Jack, I'll always love you. But I can never be what you want me to be," she said unhappily, hating the pain that she saw in his eyes.

"I know," he said bleakly. "I get that. And maybe I could accept it, if it wasn't for him. Because that's the thing that tears me up inside, Tejana..._why him_?"

Tejana hesitated, not sure that she could ever explain it, but recognising that, of all people, Jack deserved some kind of reason.

"Do you remember the Doctor telling you and Martha about the Untempered Schism and the Time Lord Academy initiation ceremony?" she began uncertainly. "_Some would be inspired...some would run away...and some would go mad? _ The Master looked and heard the drums. The Doctor looked and says he ran away, but really he was inspired to try to heal the Universe single-handedly. But me...Jack, you never asked what it was that I found."

"What?" he asked, not sure where this was going.

"Loneliness," she said flatly. "I looked into time and space and all I could see were the long, cold spaces between the stars. I listened to the song of the Universe and all I could hear was a hymn of alienation and solitude. For a whole week, I lay in my bed, eight years old, struggling against the ice that had crept into my soul – I didn't sleep, didn't eat, didn't even move – and then I got up and went on. Because, just like you said, Jack, that's what Time Lords do best...we go on. But after that, there was this...hollow...inside me, this sense of being always alone, being incomplete. At the time I thought it was because I _was_ alone, with the Doctor having left Gallifrey by then. Later, I began to think that it was a forewarning of the Time War and how I would end up being one of the last survivors when it was all over. I still don't know for sure, but the emptiness never, ever went away. _Until now_. When I'm with him, I don't feel it. I feel...whole. I can't explain it any better than that. It just..."

"Is what it is?" Jack finished dully.

She nodded. "Yes. It is what it is. I'm sorry."

He was about to say something else, when suddenly a wave of dizziness overcame her. Jack reached out to steady her.

"What is it? Another time slip?"

Tejana's hands came up to press against her temples, trying to clarify the confusing rush of sensation she was receiving.

"Yes," she replied breathlessly, swiftly adjusting some of the controls on the console. "But this one isn't originating from Rassilon. It's originating from _here_...from the TARDIS."

"What? What do you mean, from the TARDIS?" he demanded.

"I don't know!" she shot back. Then, to the time machine, "What are you _doing_, old girl?"

Then, behind them, they heard a familiar voice say, "'Ello!"


	16. Chapter 16

**_Author's Note: Thankyou everyone for your reviews - xxTeam-Masterxx, soro1010, babybluepineapple, Omniac, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei and Strange and Sad Angel - as always, you guys rock._**

**_Big hi to Kaylie S, my new reviewer, pleasure to have you along for the ride._**

**_Special thanks to Aietradaea for your review and for subsequently answering my questions - you are, as always, a great help and encouragement._**

**_Found this chapter somewhat tricky to write, not sure why, so hope it is all OK.  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN**

Tejana swung around abruptly, her eyes wide in disbelief. Sure enough, smiling back at her she saw the one face she had never thought to see again outside her memories. A tall, thin man with a shock of spiky dark-brown hair and long side-burns, twinkling brown eyes and a grin like a piano keyboard. He was wearing a brown suit with blue pinstripes, a light blue shirt, a tie and cream Converse All Stars.

"What are you two doing back here?" he asked delightedly. "Changed your minds about going back to Torchwood, did you? Well...who could blame you? You don't get to hang out with me at Torchwood. Much more fun on board the TARDIS."

"Ten!" Tejana breathed, both her hearts turning over. Instinctively she knew that this was her father as he had been just after the Children of Time had all joined together to defeat Davros and the Daleks. In his time-line, he had just left behind all his companions – Tejana and Jack had stayed on Earth with Mickey and Martha; Sarah Jane had gone back to her son; the half-human Doctor had been left in the care of Rose and Jackie in the parallel universe; and Donna...poor Donna had been returned to her mother's Chiswick home with her memories wiped, in an attempt to save her human mind from the blazing inferno of Time Lord knowledge which had overwhelmed it.

Tejana had been one of the first to leave the TARDIS and had not known it at the time, but the Doctor had eventually been left by himself, prey to melancholia and depression. Now she saw the surprised pleasure in his face, believing they had decided to travel with him after all, and it made her quiver inside with regret.

"This is brilliant!" he exclaimed, striding forward enthusiastically. "Perfect timing! I was just thinking about making a little trip to Mars. Haven't been to Mars in ages. In fact, I can't remember when I was last there. That's the trouble with getting older, you go here and you go there - it all blends together after a while."

"Doctor..." Jack interrupted, exchanging a concerned look with Tejana.

But the Doctor merely flapped his hand at him dismissively. "You'll love it! No civilisation there, not to speak of anyway. Even you couldn't get into trouble on Mars, Jack, and that's saying something. But spectacular scenery. Very red...nice colour, red. Kind of homey. No air, of course, but we can wear space suits and..."

Suddenly he broke off and looked around more closely, as if the unfamiliar surroundings had at last penetrated through his rambling thought processes.

"This isn't my TARDIS..." he said with a frown. He turned slowly and gazed at his daughter. "And you called me Ten. You only give numbers to my previous regenerations. You're not my Tejana."

Tears filled her eyes as she shook her head. "Not any more."

"I'm out of my time-line," he said tersely, his tone business-like now, all joviality gone. "I'm in my own future. Tell me what's going on – but be careful what you say. I can't know too much about events to come. We don't want to corrupt the causal nexus."

"There's already a...problem...with the causal nexus," she said carefully. "You're trying to fix it, but you've been...taken...by the person causing the problem. We're trying to follow you using the TARDIS, but the psychic link isn't enough. We need to feed your biometric code through the briode nebuliser to concentrate the link. But we don't have your code."

The Doctor looked at her sharply. "How did you bring me here?"

"It wasn't me," she replied honestly. "It was the TARDIS. The Web of Time has been weakened, many of the strands have been loosened. Somehow she knew I needed you and she took advantage of the temporal fluctuations to bring you to me."

"She's a clever old thing," the Doctor smiled, patting the console affectionately.

He hesitated for a moment, as though thinking it all through. Then he pressed a button on one of the control panels and a small hand-print scanner rose smoothly up out of the console.

"OK, here goes nothing," he said, fitting his hand on to the optical reader. There was a small green glow as the TARDIS absorbed his bio-data into the briode nebuliser. Removing his hand, he went across to where Tejana was standing by the navigational terminal and began to enter in a long list of complicated commands.

"There!" he exclaimed in satisfaction. "That ought to do it. Oh, I _am_ good! The TARDIS is locked on to my location. She should be able to follow me anywhere now."

"Is your bio-data the same as the new you?" Jack queried. "Now that you've regenerated?"

"Oh yes!" the Doctor replied with a grin, although Tejana could see his brown eyes were saddened at the mention of his forthcoming change. "A Time Lord's essential bio-data never changes. That's why we're always immediately able to recognise each other, even in a previously-unseen incarnation."

Then he turned his attention to his daughter, his expression softening. "Tejana, are you all right? You look...older."

Tejana laughed, an edge of rising hysteria in her voice. One thing that never changed about Ten was his lack of tact. "I _am _older. A lot has happened."

Suddenly, she felt a crumbling inside her, as though everything holding her together was falling away. Of all the Doctor's incarnations, Ten had been the first one to really reach out to her, the one she felt closest to. The TARDIS had given her an extraordinary gift, the opportunity Jack had never had with Ianto, the chance to spend just a few more minutes with someone you loved so much but never thought you would see again. Madly, insanely, she was seized by the temptation to break all the rules, to blurt out everything before he could stop her. She wanted to warn him, divulge all that the Master was going to do, somehow change the series of events from that terrible Christmas. If she told him, he could do it all differently, stop the Master earlier, prepare against the coming of the Time Lords - do something, _anything_, to avoid the need to absorb massive dose of radiation that had triggered his regeneration.

But she knew it was not that simple. Time was so delicate, so very fragile. Changing something in the past did not necessarily guarantee a better outcome in the future. Even a Time Lord could not fully predict the potential twists and turns of the causal nexus. She might save Ten, but in doing so, someone else might die. The Master, for instance. Or Wilfred. Or the entire planet Earth, who knew? The collateral damage from this one action could be catastrophic.

Most of all, if she saved Ten there would be no Eleven. She thought of the current Doctor's floppy hair, his boyish grin, his steady blue-green eyes, the silly bow-tie...and knew that she could never do it. She loved Eleven too and could never erase him, not even to save Ten, however great the temptation. So she forcefully bit back the impulsive words bubbling up in her throat. Regeneration was a natural part of life to a Time Lord. She knew it was ridiculous to grieve so for one previous incarnation of her father, when he had regenerated so many times before. Eleven was still the Doctor, still her father, just as Ten had been. She was a Time Lady, she understood that. After all, she had been through the regeneration process twice herself.

But, this time it was different. She knew Ten had felt it too, at the end, the cold, bitter shadow of his own mortality. She could still hear his grief-stricken last words, just before the artron energy had exploded from his body: _"I don't want to go!"_

Tejana had missed other past Doctors before, but not like this. Somehow, the anguish of the Time War had changed and twisted even this - her previous acceptance of regeneration as a natural transition. So many other things had been lost, so many things had been shattered, that losing Ten seemed much more like a death.

"I miss you!" she burst out, her broken voice helpless to convey the crying of her hearts. "I miss you so much!"

And then she was in his arms, weeping like the child she had never had the chance to be. He held her tightly and she could feel the comforting reality of his thin frame as he tucked her head under his chin.

"Don't leave me, please!" she sobbed into his chest. "I need you."

"I have to go. I can't stay, you know that," he responded quietly, stroking her hair. "But you can do this, Tejana. Whatever it is that needs to be done. You can be strong and you can be brave. You and Jack together. You're both brilliant, you really are."

Already he felt less substantial, his arms less solid. She knew he was going, retreating back through the maze of temporal instability to his own time, the power of the TARDIS to hold him beginning to fail. She was losing him all over again.

"NO!" she raged. "It isn't fair! You'll get to see me again, but I won't get to see you. It isn't FAIR!"

The Doctor gave her a last hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Remember that I love you, Tejana."

Then, gently, he disengaged her grip, passing her over to Jack, even as his body became transparent like a ghost. "Look after her for me, Captain."

"Always," Jack promised fervently, his arms firmly around her. "Whatever it takes."

The Doctor grinned at them approvingly as he faded away. "Really glad you two finally stopped mucking about and got it together, it's about time!" they heard him say faintly. "Just remember...no canoodling in the TARDIS!"

"Doctor!" she called frantically. But he was already gone.

* * *

Back on the Isle of Avalon, the eleventh Doctor had been languishing in a damp, dark little cell for about an hour when the guards came to fetch him again. In that time, he had thoroughly explored the confines of his prison and had reluctantly concluded that, without his sonic screwdriver, escape was temporarily impossible.

"Lord Rassilon commands your presence at The Ceremony," the leader of the guards pronounced.

"What ceremony?" the Doctor demanded, as they chained his hands tightly behind his back. "Or is that just his latest fancy word for 'trying to rip the Time Vortex into tiny pieces'?"

"The Ceremony of Reward," the guard replied impassively. "The Lady Abigail is to be honoured for her service to the Great Lord."

"I'm not really dressed for the occasion!" the Doctor said dryly. "Perhaps I should have brought my tuxedo."

The guards marched him through a series of long corridors back to the great stone hall, where Rassilon was still seated on his imposing throne. Abigail was now kneeling before him, her forehead touching the ground in exaggerated reverence. The other members of the Cult of Saxon stood to either side of the throne, like a guard of honour.

"My Lord Doctor," Rassilon said solemnly, inclining his head in recognition as the Doctor arrived. "As one of the last remaining Children of Gallifrey, I have summoned you to bear witness, as you have done once before. The human, Abigail Naismith, in return for her loyal service, has claimed from me that gift which is mine alone to give – physical immortality."

The Doctor's eyes widened as he suddenly understood what this Ceremony of Reward was all about. He had seen Rassilon grant his gift of immortality before, in the Death Zone on Gallifrey, the dark secret at the heart of Time Lord society. Abigail and her father had wrought untold harm with their meddling in the affairs of the Time Lords, but she did not deserve the punishment she was about to receive. Immediately, he struggled to protest, but found to his alarm that he could neither speak or move.

Rassilon fixed him with an icy glance. "A stasis field, Doctor. Your sole function here is to witness the ceremony. You shall not be permitted to interfere."

Then he turned his regard to the woman kneeling before him. "Speak, human, your Lord is listening."

"Lord Rassilon, I have been a faithful servant," Abigail said proudly. "It was through my design that you returned to the world of the living. I have fulfilled all your commands. I have spared no effort in obtaining all you have required, each and every component needed to build your great machine. Now that all is prepared and your ultimate triumph at hand, I beg you to fulfil that which was promised to me."

Rassilon smiled at her, but the smile did not reach those frozen, grey eyes. "You speak truly. You have fulfilled all that I require of you. You would claim my promise of immortality?"

"I would!" Abigail assented, her face fierce with exultation.

"Be sure, be very sure," Rassilon intoned. "Even now it is not too late to turn back."

"I am sure!" Abigail declared. "It's all that I've ever wanted. Grant me the place you have prepared for me, Lord Rassilon!"

"Very well," the Time Lord nodded. "_To lose is to win – and he who wins shall lose_. Is that not so, Doctor?"

The Doctor strove wildly to call out, to warn Abigail, but the stasis field held him immobile and he could do nothing but watch the scene he remembered from long ago unfold all over again.

"Take the Ring of Rassilon," the Lord President instructed, holding out his hand to the kneeling woman. "And receive your just reward."

Trembling with anticipation, Abigail removed the ornate ring bearing the Seal of Rassilon from the Time Lord's finger and slid it on to her own.

"Many have claimed immortality from me throughout the ages," Rassilon said ceremonially, as though the words were part of a ritual he had performed many times before. "It was granted to them as now it shall be granted to you."

Suddenly, Abigail stiffened as though a jolt of electricity had shot through her. The heavy ring on her finger shimmered and disappeared, before re-materialising back on Rassilon's hand, as though it had never left.

Throwing her head back in agony, Abigail screamed, a terrible howl which scaled upward in increasing intensity, until it seemed to rend the very air. As the Doctor watched, helpless to aid her, her body began to turn to stone. The petrification began at her feet, a mottled grey lava creeping up her legs like liquid leprosy, ossifying her blood, hardening her flesh, transforming her into a living statue. Finally, with a horrid crackling sound, the stone closed over her screaming face, her own body becoming her unyielding tomb for all eternity. Only her tortured, tormented eyes, still alive within the encasing rock, revealed that she had ever been a human being.

"Ascend now to the place which has been prepared for you," Rassilon said coldly.

At his command, two of the acolytes came forward, bowing obsequiously, terrified by the Time Lord's ruthless display of power. Carefully, keeping their eyes averted from the solidified expression of pain and terror on her face, they lifted the statue that had once been their High Priestess and carried her to one of the empty niches carved into the walls of the ancient hall, where she joined the many other effigies with living eyes which encircled the room.

The Lord President took one last, merciless look at her. "As you were promised, so shall you live forever," he said contemptuously, before turning away and leaving her to everlasting suffering in her final resting place.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Author's Note: Hi everyone, thanks for your reviews. And I know, I know, everyone wanted Ten to stick around longer - so did I - but he couldn't bump into the Master without changing history, much too timey-wimey!** **So if you people can't be responsible about protecting the integrity of the causal nexus, I guess I'll just have to do it, LOL!**_

_**Big thanks to Strange and Sad Angel, soro1010, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, Kaylie S, babybluepineapple and Aietradaea for your reviews.**_

**_Also, big hi to Omniac - Thanks for your lovely reply to my review reply, lol! _**

**_This chapter gave me a big old headache, so I'm totally glad it's done!  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER 17**

_I can do this. I can go on. Because that's what Time Lords do, we go on..._

Grimly, Tejana struggled for self-control, sorrow constricting her breathing. Bit by bit, trying to persuade herself that the hurt did not matter, she managed to force down the emotional storm evoked from seeing Ten, compressing it into a small ball and hiding it away once more, deep inside.

_It was a gift, a blessing, _she told herself. _A chance to hold him one more time, to say a real goodbye...I should be grateful._

Then she heard the Master's voice, hard and tight with suppressed anger, "You have exactly ten seconds to move away from her, Harkness, before I make it eight hundred and eighteen."

With a jolt of self-condemnation, she realised she was still holding on to Jack, clinging to him as though he was her only rock in a sea of doubt. It had become such a habit to turn to Jack for comfort, she had not even given it a second thought.

_Oh gods, I really, REALLY have to stop doing that! _

Looking up, she saw the Master leaning against the wall just inside the TARDIS doors, his deceptively casual pose at odds with the barely-leashed violence in his expression. Immediately, she tried to move away from Jack, only to feel his arms tighten around her.

"Bring it on!" he snarled at the Master, as if he was aching to provoke a confrontation with his old enemy.

They were like two savage dogs marking off their territory. Tejana had no intention of being caught in the middle of a testosterone-fuelled altercation. Seeing the Master advancing up the stairs, his eyes narrow with threat, she jabbed Jack sharply in the ribs with her elbow, forcing him to let her go.

"Stop it, both of you!" she snapped. "This is hardly the time or the place. We need to find the Doctor."

The Master gave one last warning glare at Jack, which the other man fully reciprocated, before he came to stand close beside her.

"I couldn't get anything from the Rhondium Sensor," he said. "The data was too fragmented."

Tejana kept her face turned away from him, not wanting him to notice the dried tear-stains on her cheeks. It was bad enough that Jack had seen her emotional reaction to Ten's appearance. But the Master was a Time Lord. He had been through countless regenerations, reincarnations, resurrections...he would never comprehend her grief over the loss of Ten.

"It doesn't matter," she answered, consciously keeping her voice even. "While you were gone, the TARDIS used the temporal fluctuations of the Web of Time to bring the Doctor's previous incarnation here, for a few moments only, but long enough to give us his bio-data."

The Master stiffened. "The previous Doctor was here?" he asked in astonishment. "How about that? And I missed him."

To Tejana's surprise, she detected an almost wistful tone in his voice. Suddenly she realised that she had been wrong - this too, like so many other things in her life, the Master understood. After all, she had not been the only one Ten had reached out to.

_Get out of the way!_

In her mind, Tejana could hear the poignant echo of the Master's voice, a fleeting shadow drawn from his memories of that Christmas. In his own strange way, it seemed the Master too grieved Ten's loss, somehow regretting the events that had taken place in the Naismith Manor, events for which he had been almost solely responsible.

Her eyes met his and held in mutual understanding, a deep, intimate connection suddenly surging between them. Then, under his steady regard, she recognised the possessive heat slowly rising in his brown gaze and her throat went dry. All at once, the only thing she could think about was his mouth on hers, kissing her senseless, making her feel, making her want, making her _burn_...

Remembering that Jack was watching them, she coloured and moved abruptly away towards the console.

_Hardly the time or the place_, she berated herself fiercely, trying to ignore the coiling need the Master had ignited inside her, disturbed that he was able to do it with nothing more than a glance.

"Just as well Ten didn't see you, Koschei," she said shakily. "The integrity of the causal nexus has been compromised enough as it is."

Then, her focus on their mission restored, she reached for the de-materialisation lever and said, "You'd better both hold on to something. I'm guessing this is going to be a bumpy ride."

* * *

"Welcome to the centre of Time, my Lord Doctor, the very heart of the causal nexus," Rassilon said expansively.

They were standing in a deep, grassy bowl-shaped depression in the ground, its sides sculpted into wide terraces, creating a natural amphitheatre. The Doctor had been released from the constraint of the stasis field, but his arms were still chained behind his back and several guards hemmed him in, their weapons held at the ready. Rassilon was taking no chances.

Overhead, a full moon gleamed, overlooking the landscape like a huge eye. In the exact centre of the crude coliseum stood an obsidian obelisk, a shadowy pillar of darkness which seemed to both draw the eye and simultaneously repel it. The Doctor squinted at it, trying to steady his perception enough to garner some sort of reliable impression of it. It appeared to be made of some sort of impossibly smooth black stone, about the height of a tall man, carved in perfect geometric symmetry. The surface of the monument was unmarked, save for one single engraving, the interlocking figure-of-eight circles which formed the Symbol of Rassilon.

_Blimey_, _the Master was right - Rassilon really does like to put his name on everything! _the Doctor thought wryly, wondering why he had never noticed it before.

"Behold my greatest creation, the Temporal Nucleus," Rassilon continued arrogantly. "Formed of pure dark matter, gathered and compacted using the singular forces of the Eye of Harmony. The Isle of Avalon, the radial point of all life, the only place in the Universe where time stands still. Past, present and future – all are anchored in this place, all the threads of Time cycling in an eternal dance around us."

"Impressive!" the Doctor responded. "Well, fairly impressive anyway. To be honest, I thought it would be more impressive, really, seeing as it's the centre of the Web of Time and everything, but still, as I said, fairly impressive all the same. These legends aren't always all they're cracked up to be, I often find – but then again, I suppose you know all about that, being one of them."

"Silence!" Rassilon roared. "The hour of the Time Lords draws nigh, Doctor. Soon the Children of Gallifrey will rise again, ascending to their rightful place as the Lords of Creation, a race of all-powerful beings treading the celestial firmament as we grind Time and Space beneath our feet."

* * *

The TARDIS shuddered and lurched and pitched, tossing its occupants back and forth as it careened through the Time Vortex, the navigational computer throwing up screeds of nonsense data. Only the coordinate lock Ten had put in place kept the time machine on a true course, enabling them to safely negotiate the bewildering maze of temporal mists sheltering their destination. At last, the time rotor stopped oscillating and the console room levelled out.

"We've landed," Tejana announced in relief, releasing her cramped grip on the console. "In one piece too, thank the stars. I wasn't looking forward to telling the Doctor I wrecked his TARDIS as well as his sonic screwdriver."

"Well, as a wise man once said, if a woman wants to drive, don't stand in her way," Jack remarked with a grin.

Despite his loathing of the other man, the Master couldn't help giving a smothered snort of laughter at this. Tejana glared savagely at them both, unable to decide which was worse, when they were trying to kill each other, or when they were on the same side!

"So where exactly are we?" Jack asked, hurriedly trying to change the subject.

"Insula Avallonis, according to the TARDIS data banks," Tejana replied icily.

"Why does that sound so familiar?" Jack mused. Then his eyes sharpened in realisation. "Insula Avallonis...but, that's Latin for..."

"The Isle of Avalon," Tejana finished curtly. "No wonder the Rhondium Sensor couldn't pick anything up."

"Why?" the Master asked. "What's so special about the Isle of Avalon?"

Then, when they stared at him as if he should know, he added sarcastically, "Sorry, but I forgot to bring my copy of 'Boring Trivia About Insignificant Planets.'"

"Perhaps you should have spent less time watching the Teletubbies when you lived on Earth!" Tejana returned tartly. "It's supposedly the ancient and mysterious island where King Arthur was taken to be healed of his fatal wounds after his final battle. It's a myth. It doesn't exist."

"Try telling that to the TARDIS," the Master said wryly. "Can you sense the Doctor? Is he here?"

Tejana concentrated. "Yes, he's here," she replied, her eyes troubled. "But still quite a distance away. This is apparently as close as the TARDIS could get to him. There's something obstructing her and, whatever it is, she doesn't like it one bit."

The Time Lady flicked a switch and the big, round view-screen on the wall came to life. All that could be seen outside the TARDIS was a deep, impenetrable darkness.

"Look like we'll be needing this," she said, producing a large UV lantern from under the console.

* * *

At the Lord President's command, the guards strapped the Doctor into a chair connected to a small, complex-looking machine positioned at the base of the Temporal Nucleus. The bonds around his ankles, waist and wrists were made of thick, heavy leather and were secured with old-fashioned steel buckles. This time Rassilon did not intend to make any mistakes.

"The Temporal Manipulator, my Lord Doctor," he announced. "You should be pleased. I intend to re-write history in your favour. Instead of becoming the Great Betrayer, the arch-traitor, the killer of your own kind, you will be known as the saviour of your people."

"Once, I would have done anything to save Gallifrey, Rassilon," the Doctor said sadly. "But what you've become isn't worth saving."

"Gallifrey is the _only_ thing in this miserable Universe worth preserving, the only thing that matters," Rassilon hissed, his icy eyes gleaming with mad obsession.

With that, he lowered a golden sensor band on to the Doctor's head, where it automatically tightened, enclosing his mind in a ring of fire. Centring himself, preparing himself for the tremendous psychic assault he knew was coming, the Doctor visualised the key to the Time Lock and encircled it with a red brick wall, rising everlastingly into the sky and stretching into eternity both left and right. It was the ultimate psychic defensive measure, a fortress to shield his consciousness from invasion. He knew that with the massive power of the Temporal Nucleus arrayed against him, he would ultimately fail. But while there was life there was hope – he could only put his faith in his daughter and trust that she would come through for him.

* * *

Tejana, Jack and the Master stepped out of the TARDIS and found that they were in a small cavern with a low, rocky roof. The long-buried air smelt stale and musty and ancient.

"Catacombs," Jack said in a low voice. "A network of subterranean man-made passages. The old legends say that the underground of the Isle of Avalon was honey-combed with them."

Tejana drew in a ragged breath and dropped into a crouch, both of her hands palm down on the ground.

"Oh, stars!" she gasped, looking up at the Master. "Do you feel it? This place...it feels like...it feels like a little piece of Gallifrey! Like _home!_ But that's impossible! We're still on Earth!"

The Master had his eyes closed, clearly experiencing the same sensations. He had an odd look on his face, as though subliminally he stood in a field of long, red grass under the light of a double sun. Then his eyes flicked open again, his head tilting sharply like a wolf scenting prey on the wind.

"There's something else here, something powerful..."

Tejana shuddered, her skin crawling in revulsion. "Something immutable, outside the parameters of Time. That's what was blocking the TARDIS. What's Rassilon done? This is more than a temporal manipulator, much more."

"Only one way to find out," Jack said grimly, taking the lantern from her and holding it high, illuminating the only exit, a narrow, dank tunnel stretching out in front of them. "Let's go."

* * *

The mental assault, when it came, was beyond anything the Doctor had ever imagined, the pain twisting like a burning screw, not only through his mind, but throughout his whole body. A bolt of pure white Time-fire pierced his squirming brain. His blood was ablaze, every nerve-ending, every synapse screaming in agony. Gouts of power like clawed talons tore at his red-brick wall, hungrily seeking to pull it down, avid for the prize that lay concealed inside.

But still he held. He had to hold. He had to.

* * *

Fighting back her inherent claustrophobia, Tejana led them through the underground passages, her mind reaching out for her father, following his consciousness like a homing beacon through all the waves of sickening temporal distortion. She could feel his presence, but that was all. She was receiving absolutely nothing from him and there was no way into his mind. When she tried, it was as though she was standing in front of a red brick wall which had no end. Recognising the psychic defence mechanism, Tejana prayed that it would suffice until they were able to reach him. Although, what they were going to do when they did reach him, she didn't know, so she tried not to think about it – one problem at a time.

The oily darkness seemed to swallow the light, restricting the gleam of the lantern to a dim halo, the black air cold and somehow loathsome. Most of the time, the passageways were so narrow that they were forced to go single-file, with Tejana leading and the Master behind her, each of them holding their glowing laser screwdrivers. Jack brought up the rear with the lantern. Every now and then the passage would begin to widen and they would emerge into cavern or a gallery, an open space roughly hewn from the subterranean gutrock.

It was while they were crossing one of these underground chambers that Tejana suddenly fell to her knees, holding her head, her eyes screwed tightly shut in pain. Behind the screen of her eyelids, she stood before the stronghold of the Doctor's mind, red bricks raining around her, crashing to the ground. The immense wall was gradually beginning to collapse. The Doctor was still fighting, the gaps in the barrier refilling themselves as quickly as they appeared, the bricks flying back to repair the damage even as they tumbled down. But it was evident that it would not be long before the wall disintegrated completely.

"The bricks!" she gasped in horror. "The bricks are beginning to fall."

"What bricks?" Jack asked. "What's she talking about?"

Quickly, the Master crouched in front of her, their foreheads pressed together, his mind joining with hers.

"The Doctor's mental defences are failing," he answered tersely, seeing what she saw. "It's beginning. Rassilon has already cracked open the Time Lock. Soon it will shatter, we don't have much time."

Ruthlessly, he gave Tejana a brisk shake. "Come on, Ana, snap out of it. You have to focus. We have to get to him."

_I can do what needs to be done, _Tejana told herself, drawing strength from Ten's words as she wrestled the tightness in her chest. _I can be brave and I can be strong._

Gritting her teeth, she climbed to her feet, forcing the vision of the toppling wall to the background of her mind. They began to traverse the dark passageways as quickly as they could, as close to running as was possible in the rough, narrow tunnels. The journey seemed to go on forever, the extremity of the Doctor's need driving them forward in ever-increasing urgency. They twisted and turned through the winding, airless shafts, passing under countless archways, climbing steps and navigating crevices through the gelid gloom.

Suddenly, they knew they were no longer alone. An invisible host was tracking them through the suffocating darkness. It began gradually, a creeping sensation that something was beginning to close in on them. Invisible tendrils of fear crawled after them, the air in the tunnels behind them thickening and congealing with apprehension, an unseen, viscous shadow dogging their heels.

"There's something back there!" Jack hissed, pulling out his gun and pointing it back the way they had come. "We're being followed."

"Your gun won't help, Harkness," the Master returned harshly, looking over his shoulder. "Something has slipped through the cracks in the Time Lock. We're being hunted, by something from beyond the boundaries of reality."

Tejana's senses were screaming. She could feel the naked, avid blood-lust of the unnatural creatures pursuing them. "They're so hungry," she murmured, through lips stiff with fear. "Their thoughts are so dark, so full of hatred. They're coming for us. They crave the blood of Time Lords!"

"RUN!" the Master urged. "We've got to keep ahead of them!"

There was an eerie noise seeping from the darkness now, a vile whisper, like the sibilant exhalation from many throats. They could hear the shuffling, soughing sound of many feet sliding stealthily over the rough stone floor, steadily coming closer and closer. Without warning, they emerged from the tunnel into a wide cavern, where the blackness suddenly ended. Tejana stopped dead in her headlong flight, with the other two only narrowly avoiding cannoning into her back. The chamber was lit with an uncanny phosphorescence, a foetid green light emanating from a phalanx of weirdly distorted creatures blocking the way before them. These ghastly visitations were completely transparent, the rock wall behind them showing clearly through their apparitional forms. Some of them were more or less humanoid in appearance, but as least as many resembled animals or were even further from humanoid. As soon as they laid eyes upon the three new arrivals, a lustful, salacious yammering arose from the demonic throng.

"Oh, gods!" Tejana breathed in horror.

Instinctively, blindly, like cornered rats, the three companions turned to run back the way they had come, only to find that more of the hideous spectres were flowing out of the passageway behind them, cutting off any hope of escape. The trio stood back-to-back in a defensive huddle, watching helplessly as they were completely encircled by the monstrous horde.

"What are they?" Jack asked tensely. "They can't be...ghosts?"

"Not ghosts, Time Wraiths," the Master growled. "The Army of the Neverwere."

"Time was written and re-written, over and over again, during the Last Great Time War," Tejana explained, her voice strained. "Many people and creatures that should have existed were erased. According to legend, the immense energy generated from the temporal fluctuations enabled them to take spectral form. The Neverwere are neither real or unreal, but forever trapped in between. They exist only for revenge, hating both the Time Lords and the Daleks equally, blaming both races for their state of eternal non-being. They were trapped within the Time-Lock, but now Rassilon has released them!"

Low, vicious laughter echoed around the room. "What luck is this, my brothers?" an unearthly voice grated. "What is this we have found? A cursed Time Lord and his Lady, out for a stroll with their human companion."

With that, three hulking, pearl-limned figures stepped forward from the crowd of creatures. All three were identical in appearance - over eight feet tall, their bodies gaunt and their faces cadaverous. Their sunken eyes gleamed with ferocious malice as they stared hungrily at the two Gallifreyans.

"Who are you?" the Master demanded. "What do you want from us?"

"We are the Meanwhiles," the middle creature rasped. "We are the Lieutenants of the Army of the Neverwere. We answer only to the Could-Have-Been-King. And we want from you the same thing we want from all Time Lords. We want you to die!"


	18. Chapter 18

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Thank you so much to the people who reviewed the last chapter – it was a very tough one to write (the computer nearly got thrown out the window several times) so your feedback made me feel much better about it!**_

_**SO thanks very much Omniac, Aietradaea and babybluepineapple, you are the best!**_

_**Also a big hello to jazz-sparks, my new reviewer – thanks for your review on this one and also One Moment in Time, awesome to hear your opinion!**_

_**This is one of my favourite chapters in this fic, so hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER 18**

A menacing murmur arose from the encircling host of demonic spectres, a pandemonium of hungry longing which grew increasingly louder as they pressed closer and closer, inexorably closing the gap between themselves and their prey.

Standing back to back with the Master and Jack, Tejana closed her eyes, waiting for death. These were not mere temporal anomalies. This was the Army of the Neverwere, one of the legendary horrors of the Last Great Time War. There was no way out of this one, no hope of rescue. This time it was really over.

All of a sudden, when everything seemed lost, an imperious voice cut through the chaos of sound.

"Hold! Do not harm them!"

A quivering whisper ran through the crowd of creatures as they fell back. "The King! The King!"

As one, the Army of the Neverwere dropped to their knees and bowed their heads in abject servility. Flowing through their ghostly ranks was a tall, translucent figure. With a shock, Tejana realised that the ethereal creature wore the fitted skull-cap and the traditional high-collared formal robes of the Lord President of Gallifrey.

"Kneel to the King!" snarled one of the Meanwhile lieutenants.

"We are Time Lords of Gallifrey," the Master returned contemptuously. "We kneel to no-one."

"I know who you are," the eldritch King said, his mellifluous voice surprisingly gentle.

Tejana stared at his features, finding them hauntingly beautiful. Somehow she felt as if she should know his face. It was intensely familiar and yet completely strange. She felt no fear of him. Instead, a peculiar sense of yearning filled her soul, as though she had at last found something she didn't even know she had been missing.

The Master also seemed to be struck by the odd feeling of de ja vu.

"_Who are you_?" he demanded, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

"I am the Could-Have-Been-King," the being answered. "I am the Primagenia, the first-born of the Neverwere, those who should have been, but who were erased from existence during the temporal fluctuations of the Last Great Time War."

"But you...you're a Time Lord too..." Tejana whispered. "Like us."

"Yes. My father was the very first casualty of the Time War," the Could-Have-Been-King replied, an oddly tender look on his perfect face as he looked at her. "His future was erased and therefore I was never born. And because I was never born, the Time War came to be – an eternal recursive paradox."

The Master frowned. "What paradox?"

"My destiny was to be the greatest President Gallifrey had ever known. Under my leadership, the policy of non-intervention would have been rescinded – the Daleks would have been destroyed before the Time War ever began. But history was changed and I became the first of the Neverwere," the creature replied. "Now I am only the King that Could Have Been, nothing but a grieving shadow, a manifestation of wasted potential, given form by the chaotic nature of the Time War."

"You mean the Time War need never have happened?" Tejana said incredulously, seeing in her mind's eye the candle-lit Plains of Orion, stretching on and on, each flame representing a life lost tragically to the horrors of war. "Except for one small accidental change in history?"

"It was not small and it was not accidental," the King answered sorrowfully. "Rassilon knew exactly what he was doing."

"Rassilon?" the Master growled, his face twisting at the sound of the hated name. "Oh yeah, he'd have to be involved somewhere."

The Could-Have-Been-King looked at him steadily. "You still do not understand," he said compassionately. "Then I must show you. Watch with me and behold what should have been."

_The air surrounding Tejana seemed suddenly to shimmer and glisten. The massed ranks of the Neverwere faded from her vision and suddenly she was standing on the gracious portico of an elegant stone manor house she had never seen before. It was a magnificent day. Overhead, the never-ending dome of the sky blazed in flame-coloured beauty, the burning orbs of the Gallifreyan twin suns bathing the planet in spring warmth. Beyond the lovely manicured gardens of the manor, she could see field after field of long red grass stretching on for what seemed like eternity across the slopes of Mount Perdition, the lush blades waving in the balmy breeze. _

_Standing nearby on the sweeping stone steps was a small family group, a tall dark-haired man, a woman with long blonde hair and, in the arms of the man, a curly-haired toddler about five years of age. The man was garbed formally in the official regalia of the Lord President of Gallifrey. The woman was dressed in the usual manner of the high-caste Gallifreyan female, in a simple white linen kirtle, trimmed in gold, her pale hair intricately braided and dressed._

_Tejana gazed at the little group, unsure at first why the Could-Have-Been-King was showing this to them. Then the woman tilted her head and smiled lovingly up at the man and the watching Time Lady got a clearer look at her face. In a shocking flash of recognition, she realised that she was looking at herself as she had been in her first incarnation. This woman was her and yet it was not – for surely Tejana had never in her life been that young, that carefree, that happy?_

_With a premonition of impending sorrow, she looked more closely at the man and understood that, incredibly, this was the Master, in a regeneration from long ago, a handsome face with which she was not familiar. The dark eyes were eerily similar to those of the Master she knew and yet so different – full of peace and contentment and joy, softened in love as he looked at his family._

_And between them both was the child, their son, an adorable bright-faced imp, laughing in delight as his father tossed him indulgently in the air._

_Tejana felt a savage rush of pain, as if someone had thrust a knife into her belly. Oh gods, was this how it was supposed to have been? She and the Master, together from the beginning? Sharing that most precious of all things to a Gallifreyan, a son? No, oh no, surely it was not possible... _

"_My father would have been Koschei of the House of Oakdown, Lord President of Gallifrey," came the deep, dark voice of the Could-Have-Been-King, aching like a forgotten song of grief in her soul. "My mother would have been Tejanakaturadilena of the House of Lungbarrow, only child of the Lord Chancellor Theta Sigma, who gladly entrusted his daughter in marriage to his lifelong friend."_

_As Tejana watched, another figure came on the scene, climbing the stone stairs, tall and elegant with silver hair and dressed in the vestments of the Lord Chancellor of Gallifrey._

"_Grandfather!" cried the child, struggling to the ground and running to leap into the arms of the new arrival._

_It was the Doctor, as he too could have been, had this future ever existed. Joyfully, he hugged his grandson and kissed his daughter. Then he turned to the Master and they embraced in the manner of old and beloved friends._

"_This was the future that Rassilon erased when he sent the drumbeat back through time to corrupt and twist the mind of Koschei of the House of Oakdown when he was but a child," the Could-Have-Been-King continued bleakly. "This was how Rassilon ensured his own continued existence. This is how he rose to become the King-That-Was. For if the Time War had not come to pass, the Time Lords would never have resurrected him. And if the Time Lords had not resurrected Rassilon, the Time War would never have come to pass. Thus was the fate of the Universe sealed within the never-ending cycle of a recursive paradox."_

_And in that instant, overwhelmed by an all-consuming wave of betrayal, Tejana understood. Rassilon, the originator of Time Lord society, the very foundation of the billion-year history of Gallifrey, the man who had been revered and venerated throughout generation after generation of her people, the larger-than-life legend who had always stood for everything that was good, everything that was worthwhile...this man was the same Rassilon who through one supreme act of selfishness had knowingly torn apart not only the Master's life, but the lives of untold millions across the galaxies. He had single-handedly created the Time War, casting the Universe into darkness and storm and chaos. He was to blame for each and every one of the countless candles which burned brightly on the plains of Orion. He was responsible for each and every one of the distorted manifestations of grief that made up the huge Army of the Neverwere. The bitter weight of the incredible, shattering realisation nearly drove her to her knees._

_Laughing and joking, Koschei and Theta turned into the manor house, taking the child with them, with the Could-Have-Been Tejana fondly following in their wake._

"_No! No, don't go!" Tejana screamed, desperate to hold on to the fading vision, seduced by the beguiling enchantment of her life as it could have been. "Please!"_

_She was weeping now. She could taste the salt of her own tears, acrid on her tongue like the astringent memory of things forever lost._

_For a moment, standing in the doorway, the blonde woman paused and turned, a puzzled look on her features, as though she had somehow heard the haunting call of her counterpart, echoing faintly over the unbridgeable chasm of What-Might-Have-Been. _

_Greedily, Tejana stared through tear-blurred eyes at the other's face, drinking in the unknown happiness she saw there - the fulfilment which comes only from a lifetime of loving and being loved, the security of always having had a home and a family, the serenity stemming from never having known war or hardship or loss._

_Then the great wooden door of the Oakdown manor slammed shut, leaving her eternally outside, cast out from that lost reality for all time._

"_I wished only for you to know me and to understand," the Could-Have-Been-King said sadly. "The quarrel of the Neverwere is not with you. Go now in peace and do what you must do."_

"No...wait!" she cried.

But it was too late. The hallucination had faded, leaving her standing once more with the Master and Jack in the cold and dark of the tunnels beneath the Isle of Avalon, illuminated only by the lantern they carried. The Could-Have-Been-King and the phosphorescent Army of the Neverwere had disappeared, vanishing back into the deep well of memory and time from whence they had come.

"They've gone," Jack said in amazement. "They just disappeared. What happened? Were they temporal anomalies too?"

Tejana didn't even hear him. Shaking, she raised her eyes to the Master's face. The devastated expression she saw there in the dim light of the lantern made both her hearts hurt, her throat tight and painful. It was as though something fundamental had suddenly broken inside him. His anguished brown eyes glittered with the sheen of unshed tears, his mouth twisted with the sudden hollow awareness of everything that had been taken from him.

"You would have been my wife," he said bitterly in Gallifreyan, the achingly poignant tongue of their long-gone home, the silvery language of loss. "We would have had a _SON_!"

Tears ran down her cheeks. "It was just one possible future, one of many that could have been..." she answered, extending her hands to him in a gesture of comfort.

"NO! He did this! He took this from me, just like he took everything else from me!" he bit out, pulling away from her, his voice constricted by the white rage burning inside him. "This time, he's going to pay. This time I'm going to finish it! He likes to play with the future. Well, I'm going to be the end of all Rassilon's tomorrows."

With that, he strode away, disappearing into the gloom.

"Koschei!" she cried, moving to follow him.

But then she felt Jack's strong hands holding her back. He had not partaken in the vision of the Could-Have-Been-King and understood nothing of what had happened. All he had seen was Tejana's distress and the Master's rage.

"What the hell is going on, Tejana? What's that son of a bitch done now?"

Startled, Tejana gazed at him, suddenly registering that he was there. As if caught in a nightmare, she remembered telling him about her Academy initiation, trying to explain to him why being with the Master seemed so inexplicably right. Now it was all so clear. The Untempered Schism had not been showing her the future all those years ago, had not been forewarning of the horror of the Time War as she had believed. Instead, it had been showing her the past, how one of the most integral pieces of her soul had been stolen and broken centuries before she was even born, the moment the child Koschei had looked into the gap in reality and first heard Rassilon's cursed drums. The realisation shook her world to its very foundations.

"He should have been..." she choked out, her eyes wild as they looked into Jack's. "_WE _should have been..."

Without warning, she felt a terrible crashing sensation in her mind as the red brick wall finally wavered for the last time and then splintered into a billion pieces. The Doctor's howl of agony ripped through the psychic link like a jagged blade.

"Oh gods, Rassilon's smashing open the Time Lock!" Tejana cried, tearing away from Jack and running blindly through the darkness in the same direction the Master had taken. Up ahead, the passage opened into another large cavern. Tejana could see the faint glow of the Master's screwdriver as he hesitated in the centre of the room. The entire area was beginning to shake, huge bone-rattling tremors which sent showers of rock skittering down from the ancient walls.

"Koschei!" she shouted, running across to him.

"Ana, no, don't!" he yelled back.

But it was too late. An enormous crack, fizzing with lethal time-fire, began to split the ground, heading right for them with the awesome speed of a runaway express train, inexorably attracted to the temporal aura of the two Time Lords. With a herculean effort, just as the crack reached them, the Master seized Tejana and hurled her to one side as hard as he could. She smashed into the ground some distance away, the impact jarring right through her body, the breath completely knocked out of her lungs. Gasping in pain, she struggled to her hands and knees, frantically looking back over her shoulder. All she could see was a wide chasm slicing through the ground, a deadly core of time-fire fulminating in its depths, reflecting a flood of beautiful blue-white luminescence on to the stony ceiling of the cavern. Of the Master, there was no sign.

"No!" she screamed. "NO!"

Scrambling on her hands and knees, she threw herself across to the edge of the abyss, feverishly searching for him. To her relief, she saw him, clinging desperately with both hands to the far side of the chasm, his legs dangling over the fearful drop.

"Koschei!"

"Ana, get back _now_!" he ordered harshly, struggling to find some purchase for his feet.

Already, she could see the long, slender tendrils of brilliant time-fire curling up out of the depths of the ravine, hungrily reaching for him. There was no way she could get to him, the gaping crevasse an impassable barrier. Uncontrollable fear scorched through her. She had to do something. He was about to be wiped out of Time itself, as if he had never been. He was part of her direct past, so she – like everyone else – would forget his existence. She would spend the rest of her life as she had spent the first half – forever grieving for something she didn't even know was missing. She had to save him, there had to be a way! After everything the Could-Have-Been-King had just shown them, the Universe couldn't be cruel enough to take him from her again.

Just then, Jack erupted out of the tunnel at a run.

"Oh, thank the gods!" Tejana cried, a flood of happiness surging dizzily through her. Jack was here. Everything would be all right now. "Help him, Jack. He's going to fall!"

She saw Jack glance around, taking in the situation, recognising the spreading time-fire for what it was. He stared down at the helpless Time Lord and his face hardened. Instead of reaching down to help, as she had expected, he stood back and casually crossed his arms, a taunting smile on his face.

"Jack? Jack!" Tejana yelled, shock turning the blood in her veins to ice water. "What are you _doing_?"

She was so used to Jack being there for her, so used to relying on him completely, she had forgotten that he had a dark side of his own. Jack had always managed to be ruthless when it was needed, to safeguard the things he considered important. In some ways, he was as much a killer as the Master had ever been.

"JACK!"

He flicked a brief look in her direction, but then returned his attention to the Master. She saw him say something quietly to his enemy that she could not hear. Then he lifted his booted foot and ground it down viciously on to one of the Master's hands.


	19. Chapter 19

_**Author's Note: Hi all! Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter - as I said, it was one of my favourites, so I'm pleased you all liked it too! LOL to all the people who commented about my "cliff-hanger" - I didn't even see that pun coming, d'oh!**_

_**Anyway, big thanks to soro1010, jazz-sparks, XxCoffee-and-CreamxX (another massive catch-up, you make me smile), Omniac, Kaylie S, xxTeam-Masterxx and Aietradaea!**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER 19**

The bricks were falling. One by one, faster and faster and faster. Doggedly, his bones melting with weariness, the Doctor mentally threw them back into the air, one by one, sealing the gaps in the wall as they formed, knitting together the spreading cracks which threatened to shatter his defences like a fragile glass window-pane. Sculpting the awesome power of the Temporal Nucleus into a cerebral battering ram, Rassilon struck mercilessly at the Doctor's psychic fortress, the repeated assaults of blazing Time-fire driving hot, crippling needles of excruciating pain into his brain.

"You will not prevail, my Lord Doctor," he heard Rassilon say. "The power of the Nucleus is irrefusable. Already you weaken. Your mind fails and soon the Key to the Time Lock will be mine."

"I'm not beaten yet, Rassilon," the Doctor retorted, sweat standing out on his brow. From somewhere deep inside he managed to summon fresh energy, the bricks swirling in an arcane dance as the wall formed and reformed in stubborn defiance of Rassilon's will.

But the Doctor could feel the strength of the Time Lock diminishing, fatal breaches lacerating the metaphorical bubble he had created so long ago to contain the horrors of the Time War. Dark things waited at the narrow fissures, things full of hatred and a lust for revenge and destruction, swarming like filthy maggots, slavering with anticipation at the thought of release from their long imprisonment. Already some of them had slipped through - he could feel it but he could not stop it.

So many times he had stood between the Universe and destruction, so many times he had wrenched triumph from the jaws of chaos. He had been the Time Lord Victorious, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Oncoming Storm...but not this time. This time he was failing, the bitter wilderness of defeat inexorably encroaching upon him.

Sensing victory was near, Rassilon redoubled his efforts, increasing the ballistic momentum of his attack, a network of cracks spreading like a virulent disease across the face of the wall. Soon gaping holes began to appear, the bricks falling in a heavy cascade the Doctor was helpless to repair. Then came the final onslaught, a catastrophic whirlwind of white flame which struck the weakened barricade with inescapable force. For an infinitesimal moment, the wall continued to hold, wavering like a tree in a strong wind. But then, amid the Doctor's crucified scream of pain and denial, it crashed to the ground in a shattering storm of dust and smoke.

Rassilon had won.

Exultantly, the Lord President reached cold, vicious fingers into his mind and tore away the Key.

"I, Rassilon, am the Father of Gallifrey. I alone am the beginning and the end of all things! At the dawn of history, I created the Time Lords, I nurtured them, taught them to walk the paths of greatness! Now, at the final apocalypse, I shall call my children home and lead them into everlasting glory!"

And with that, he turned the Key in the Time Lock.

* * *

The first thing that Jack saw when he burst out of the passageway was the radiant blue-white light refracting across the roof of the cavern in a shimmering dance of prismatic beauty. He knew immediately that he was looking at the same glow that had appeared in the Torchwood kitchen just after Ianto had vanished. Time-fire, Tejana had called it, capable of wiping a person out of Time itself, obliterating them so completely that not even a single memory of them remained.

Cautiously, he advanced further into the cave, realising that the light was emanating from a massive crack in the ground. Tejana was on her hands and knees on the other side of the gap, desperately looking down into the depths of the chasm. Upon seeing him, the terror on her face gave way to overwhelming joy.

"Oh, thank the Gods! Help him, Jack, he's going to fall!"

That was when he saw that the Master had somehow slipped into the deadly ravine and was clinging precariously to the edge. Jack looked down and the renegade Time Lord glared back up at him. Jack froze. Those wicked brown eyes – how often, on board _The Valiant_, had they been the last thing he saw before he plummeted agonisingly into the dark pit of death? How often had they been the first thing he saw upon waking again, only to realise that it was not over for the day, that the Master had yet more inventive and painful tortures to inflict on his helpless captive? But this time...oh, this time it was not Jack who was helpless, it was not Jack who was defenceless and vulnerable - it was the Master. _Turn and turn about_. Involuntarily, the Captain took a step back, taking a savage enjoyment in his enemy's plight, his handsome face stretching into a mocking smile. There was no answering surprise or panic in the Master's gaze, only steady contempt, and Jack understood that the Time Lord had not expected anything different. Had their positions been reversed, he would never have saved Jack and therefore it did not cross his mind that Jack would ever save him. The hatred between the two men was so potent that it was almost tangible.

"Jack? Jack! What are you _doing_?" he heard Tejana scream. "JACK!"

He glanced across at her, seeing the incredulous horror written across her lovely face. In his head, he could hear his own voice, promising the Doctor that he would take care of her. _Always...whatever it takes..._

Then he looked back at the Master, his gaze falling on his enemy's hands, tenaciously maintaining their grip on the edge. Those hands had held Tejana, taken pleasure from her, touched her in ways that Jack yearned to but never had. Rage swelled within him, spreading like a poison, enveloping his mind in a red haze. All he had to do was to make sure that the Master fell – the Time-fire would do the rest. The Master would be erased from time, as though he had never been. Nobody, not even Tejana – _especially_ not Tejana - would even remember he had ever existed. It was the ultimate Ret-Con.

_Whatever it takes..._

"See ya round, _Koschei_," he hissed vindictively, intentionally echoing the Master's own taunting words when he had first left with Tejana in his TARDIS. "Guess this is me, getting the last laugh! Oh, and don't worry, I'll look after her, once you're gone!"

Raising his foot, he smashed it down on the Master's left hand, vengefully crushing his fingers until their tenuous grip was forced to slacken and fall away. Now the Time Lord was hanging by only one hand, his boot somehow wedged into a tiny crevice in the wall, supporting his weight. The greedy filaments of Time-fire were close now, coiling and twining towards their prey, avidly seeking to pull him down into the hell of non-existence. Jack raised his boot again, ready to grind it ruthlessly down on to the Master's other hand.

"_NO!_" Tejana shrieked. "_JACK, DON'T YOU DO THIS! I WILL REMEMBER HIM! I SWEAR, I __WILL REMEMBER WHAT YOU'VE DONE, NO MATTER WHAT!_"

There was still no fear on the Master's face, only unmitigated malice.

"You won't win, Harkness," he rasped, his voice low and deadly. "I'll become one of the Neverwere, but I'll never leave her. I'll whisper in her ear, walk through her dreams. I will never, _ever_ let her go. She will still belong to me and she will hate you. She might not remember why, but with every breath that she takes for the rest of her life, she will despise you. You'd better be sure that what you're doing is worth it!"

Jack hesitated, the ominous words giving him pause. What if the Master was right? Tejana was a Time Lady. The rules of Time and Space which fettered other beings so often didn't apply to her people. What if she somehow remembered what he had done, even subconsciously? She would never forgive him and he didn't think he could bear that. He carried enough guilt on his back already, enough loss. And it would be just like the Master to manifest as one of the Time Wraiths, keeping her tied to him even after he had ceased to exist, infiltrating and contaminating her life like a noxious vapour.

"Jack, _please_!" she implored, the desperate supplication in her voice tearing at him, intensifying his mounting indecision. Tejana had always been so proud and headstrong. He had never heard her beg before, not like this.

At that instant, the Master's fingers slipped and he began to fall. But Jack was too quick. In a lightning fast reflex, his hand shot out and seized the other man's arm. Now the Time Lord hung suspended over the yawning chasm, fully reliant on Jack's strength to keep him from falling.

Jack's face twisted into a snarl, even at this last second still undecided. God, the temptation was so strong. He _wanted_ to drop the bastard, he wanted to drop him so badly! But instead, he gave a tremendous heave and pulled the other man up, until the Master's feet were safely on solid ground once more.

* * *

Tejana saw the Master fall and a terrible, icy javelin of fear seemed to impale her hearts, her soul clenching in a silent scream. Then Jack's hand flashed out and seized him, holding him securely after all. For an endless moment, the two men paused, like a living picture frozen in time, the Master dangling precariously like a puppet in the Captain's powerful grip, before finally Jack dragged the Time Lord out of the dreadful chasm.

A staggering, overpowering wave of relief ripped through her. She could still feel Jack's indecision and she knew it could so easily have gone either way. "Oh, thank you, Jack," she whispered gratefully. "_Thank you_."

But the danger was far from over. Another huge tremor rumbled through the chamber. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a gleam of nacreous blue-white light. Just in time, she flung herself backwards, away from the cavernous abyss, even as the serpentine coils of Time-fire slithered over the edge towards her with horrifying speed.

More luminous fronds were snaking out of the crevasse on the other side, a malignant, many-tentacled octopus of light reaching for Jack and the Master with an almost sentient voracity. The two men backed away, only to realise that there was nowhere to go. They were completely cut off, the chasm before them, the rock wall behind them and the hungry tendrils of Time-fire crawling towards them on both sides.


	20. Chapter 20

**_Author's Note: Hi, me again! Wow, Chapter 20 already, not far to go now! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: soro1010, Aietradaea, Omniac and Kaylie S - so glad you are still reading and especially taking the time to review, it makes me happy to know people are still enjoying!_**

**_Special hi to Jazz-sparks - thanks so much for your vote of confidence regarding my writing, it was lovely of you. Also thanks for putting up with me banging on about character psychology, as you can probably tell, it is a bit of a hobby-horse of mine, LOL!_**

**_Another special hi to MayFairy, my new reviewer - I always get so excited when I have a new reviewer, so thank you and welcome to my "ship of dreams" (LOL), so glad you are enjoying my story!_**

**_This was my OTHER favourite chapter, so hope you all like it XXX  
_**

* * *

**CHAPTER TWENTY**

Tejana stared at the beautiful white threads of Time-fire, twisting and curling into enticing patterns, the sinuous curlicues reflecting deep within the dilated, mesmerised pupils of her midnight blue eyes.

_A complicated space-time event, _she remembered, bringing to her mind her long-ago lessons at the Time Lord Academy. _The only way to close a crack in Time of this magnitude is for it to absorb a complicated space-time event._

It had all seemed so straightforward back then, so boring, so _unimportant_, reading the words on the crisp, white pages of her text-book in a stuffy classroom on a hot Gallifreyan summer's day, her head full of day-dreams about one day travelling the stars with her father. Centuries later, standing in the dark catacombs beneath the Isle of Avalon, gazing at the actual crack in Time which was about to consume two of the people she loved most, she realised with painful clarity that complicated space-time events were not all that easy to come by.

She looked over at the Master and Jack, their backs pressed hard against the wall, the sprawling tentacles of light so close, so very close to reaching them.

_Only two complicated space-time events to choose from, _she thought, _the Master...or me._

In her mind, there wasn't really a choice. She hadn't been able to stop the Daleks on Trion – a defeat, a failure which still burdened her soul - there was no reason to think she would be any more successful in overcoming Rassilon. But the Master was a genius...he would think of a way to stop the Lord President and save the Doctor, even if it was just to satisfy his own thirst for revenge. And she knew that she would never be able to stand here and watch the Time-fire take him and Jack.

She swallowed nervously, wondering briefly if it hurt to be erased from Time. Slowly, she began to back up, her eyes fixed on the glowing depths of the chasm.

"No, Ana, don't you dare!" the Master commanded, immediately reading her intent. "_Ana_, I'm ordering you, stay where you are!"

"Only a complicated space-time event will close it, Koschei," she retorted. "There's only two...it's you or me. And I choose me."

"No! Stop!" he yelled. "You will obey me!"

_Only two, no choice, _she reiterated to herself determinedly, ignoring him and preparing to take the flying leap which would send her into the burning heart of the Time-fire. But then, suddenly, just before she jumped, a random thought struck her like a flash of lightning.

_Two to choose from...or THREE?_

With a burst of incredulous elation, she thrust her hand into her pocket, searching frantically for the tiny item she knew was there. At last she found it and pulled it free, her fingers rejoicing in the hard, cold shape of it, the sparkling Time-fire reflecting from its infinite facets as she held it up, shimmering in iridescent glory.

_The White Point Star._

Mined from the ancient heart of Gallifrey, as old as Time itself, it had graced the Sceptre of Rassilon since the dawn of history. For a billion years, like the Time Lords themselves, it had overseen the rise and fall of countless civilisations and empires throughout the galaxies, the cruel devastation of innumerable great wars, the growth and the industry of the intervening times of peace. It had pierced the Time-Lock, travelling through Time and Space, temporarily forming a link from Gallifrey to Earth. It had embodied the essence of Rassilon, the most powerful Time Lord that had ever been, and had been the sole medium through which he was restored from death to once more walk the waking world.

_In short, it was a complicated space-time event._

"Please," she murmured. "Oh, please, let this work!"

Drawing back her hand, she tossed the diamond with unerring accuracy. As though in slow motion, she watched the glittering gem-stone spiral through the air, refracting a kaleidoscopic rainbow of colour as it spun. Then it was gone, plummeting like a tiny shooting star into the shifting sea of Time-fire.

A massive convulsion shook the ground, the entire cavern quaking violently, a vibrating rumble echoing up from the crack. The glistening trailers of white energy began to retract, immediately subsiding back into the chasm with slithering, repulsive haste. The seismic shaking intensified and the edges of the fissure began to draw together, sealing the crack shut. Soon there was nothing left but a ragged scar vitiating the ground where the gaping shaft of Time-fire had once been. In a few moments, even that had vanished, leaving no sign that anything untoward had ever happened.

With a shout of triumph, Tejana was running towards the two stunned men, throwing herself at them in a paroxysm of relief.

"Don't you just _love_ it when everybody lives?" she exclaimed joyously, reaching out to embrace them both. "Now, let's go get the Doctor!"

* * *

They were close to the surface now, she could feel it, the impelling sense of urgency hard on their heels. The air was less stale, occasional eddies of fresh breeze stirring the stultifying stillness. The Doctor was nearby, she could discern his presence, his mind a blazing welter of pain. At last, bursting out of the final tunnel at a run, they found themselves in a deep, grassy bowl-shaped depression in the ground, its sides sculpted into wide terraces. In the centre, on a raised dais, she saw a strange black obelisk, ominously inscribed with the Symbol of Rassilon. It was giving forth a weird, dark aura which was seemed to call to her like a siren's song and yet, at the same time, disgusted her beyond bearing, as though corruption crawled across her skin. At the base of this obscene monument was a chair, to which the Doctor was bound, his head encircled with a thin golden sensor band, his face a mask of tortured agony. The sensor band was connected to a small, intricate-looking device, which she guessed was Rassilon's temporal manipulator.

Standing in front of the machine he had built stood a figure garbed in flowing red robes, the official regalia of the Lord President of Gallifrey. He turned to face them and, with a chilling flash-back to their confrontation in the Heart of the Matrix, Tejana recognised the greying hair, the glacial eyes, the majestic mien – it was Rassilon.

"Aaah, the madman and the traitor-spawn," he said coldly. "Greetings once more, my Lord Master, my Lady Tejana. It is fitting that you have come. Now the gathering of Time Lords will be complete."

Tejana felt hatred raging through her veins, like nothing she had ever felt before, so intense, so concentrated that she thought she might explode from the virulent force of it. This man, this..._creature_...that she had once worshipped like a god, was responsible for so much harm, so much hurt, so much death and destruction...

"The only madman, the only traitor here is _you_, Rassilon!" she spat. "We know it all, every sickening thing you've done. You didn't just betray Gallifrey, you betrayed the entire Universe, just to save your own miserable skin, to satiate your greed for everlasting life! The Time War was _your_ fault, all those people dead, all those planets destroyed, just so you could live!"

"I am the Lord of all Time Lords, the beginning and the end! I am the very life-blood of Gallifrey! It is not for such as you to judge my actions!" Rassilon snarled. "To me a thousand years is nothing more than a day! I will never die! The old order of things has passed away. Here, standing in the very heart of my creation, you will bear witness to the Great Apocalypse, the end of all things. At long last, the accursed Time Lock is broken and all of Time and Space will be laid bare. Now, Gallifrey _rises_!"

As he spoke, the temporal manipulator pulsed with energy and the Doctor screamed in pure agony as the Time-fire channelled through his brain. There was an enormous crack of thunder and the central obelisk shuddered, as though it was alive and sharing the Doctor's heart-rending pain. Then, with a horrible high-pitched reverberation, it shattered into an infinite number of pieces, chunks of obsidian stone raining haphazardly across the dais. The bowl-shaped amphitheatre seemed to shimmer in a haze of pure white light and then disappear, to be replaced by a huge dark cavernous room, lined with level after level of ascending seating, each tier filled with scores of people formally attired in Gallifreyan ceremonial robes, completely surrounding and encircling the platform on which Rassilon stood.

"_GALLIFREY RISES! GALLIFREY RISES!_" they chanted in unison, the cry swelling and growing until it was deafening, echoing around the room with nightmarish malevolence.

Tejana stared around her in horrified disbelief, so many of the faces once familiar to her, now twisted in insane, power-hungry megalomania.

"What's happening?" Jack demanded urgently. "Who the hell are they?"

"It's the Grand Assembly of the High Council of Gallifrey," Tejana gasped despairingly. "He's brought them back, all of them!"

"Welcome home, my children!" Rassilon proclaimed, raising his arms in a majestic gesture. "Welcome to your ultimate destiny! For this is the hour of the Time Lords. This is the hour when we shall ascend to the higher plane of existence, while Creation itself ceases to be. This is the hour when we take our place in glory!"

"_GALLIFREY RISES! GALLIFREY RISES!_" came the triumphant mantra from the gallery.

Then, without warning, the Master walked forward to confront Rassilon, standing with his old, innate confidence, every line of his body radiating danger.

"What's he doing?" Tejana muttered in alarm. "_Koschei_!"

The Master did not turn. Instead, he looked the Lord President in the face and said icily, "It's over for you, Rassilon. This time it's really finished."

"I see you have lost none of your arrogance, my Lord Master," Rassilon laughed scornfully. "You are but one. With what power do you seek to deny us?"

The Master smiled tightly – a beautiful, white, slightly-insane smile full of underlying threat. His expression was unconcerned, his head slightly tilted as though he was listening. "Can't you hear it?"

"Hear _what_?"

"The drums...the never-ending drums," the Master replied venomously. "Listen, listen, they're there, RIGHT NOW!"

"No one can hear them but you – it's nothing but the sound of your own diseased insanity, echoing through the ages!" Rassilon sneered.

"Don't you recognise the sound of your own death, Rassilon? Listen, it's coming...can't you hear it marching? One...two...three...four! ONE...TWO...THREE...FOUR!"

With a stab of fear, Tejana realised she _could_ hear it, the steady pulse of the drums. The noise was no longer just in the Master's head – it was real, physically audible, distant at first, but then growing louder and louder and louder, like the rumbling beat of mustering war. Nervously, all the members of the High Council began looking around them, trying to ascertain where the noise was coming from.

_Doom...doom...doom...doom_

_Doom...doom...doom...doom_

_Doom...doom...doom...doom_

Then, most terrifying of all, there came the eerie, haunting sound of thousands of ghostly feet marching in cadence to the powerful, menacing beat, as though an advancing army drew closer and closer, the spine-chilling noise swelling and filling the huge amphitheatre.

"What is this?" the Lord President roared, fear beginning to stir in the depths of his cold grey eyes. "_What are you doing_?"

The Master stood tall and strong and unwavering in the midst of all the noise and confusion, his face hard and commanding like a general going into battle.

"You took everything from me, Rassilon," he snarled, fury corroding his voice like bitter acid. "My home, my family, my future...the wife I should have had, our son...and in exchange you gave me the drums, a warrior's march. Well, Lord President, _now I give them back to you_!"

The steady, ominous drum-beat of four grew ever more thunderous, until it seemed to shake the very ground they stood on, throbbing and vibrating through their bodies.

_DOOM...DOOM...DOOM...DOOM._

"Here come the drums!" the Master shouted triumphantly, raising his arms high. "_HERE...COME...THE DRUMS!_"

With that, as if they had only been awaiting his signal, the Army of the Neverwere poured into the amphitheatre, bursting through the walls, erupting from the floor, a howling host of murderous, eldritch creatures, intent on exacting their ultimate revenge on those who had cheated them of life. Panicked, the members of the High Council tried to run, but in the spectral avalanche of terror there was nowhere for them to go. Each phantom chose a Time Lord and then relentlessly flowed like luminous ichor into their victim's chest, the evanescent forms merging with the living bodies.

At the same time, Tejana felt a gentle brush on her cheek and a soft, tender whisper in her mind. "Goodbye, Mother. Remember me."

Then a freezing wind blew past her and she saw the tall, unearthly figure of the Could-Have-Been King advancing beyond the Master, heading vengefully towards Rassilon. Seeing what was coming for him, the Lord President began to back away in fear. "No! No, keep away! _Stay back_!"

But there was to be no escape. The Could-Have-Been King poured out his essence like living water, striking Rassilon squarely in the chest, sinking deep into his body.

Tejana watched in shock, the realisation suddenly dawning on her that the silent conversation the Master had held with the Could-Have-Been-King during the vision in the catacombs had been very different to her own.

And that was when the screaming began. She would never forget the horror of it as long as she lived. Each Time Lord began to glow with incandescent artron energy, every single one of them simultaneously beginning to regenerate, their faces contorted in excruciating agony. But this was no ordinary regeneration cycle. No sooner had their bodies fully metamorphosed into a new form, when the dreadful process started to repeat, the artron energy haemorrhaging uncontrollably from the victims like golden blood from an open, unstaunchable wound. Again and again their bodies renewed themselves in unspeakable pain only for the dark agony to begin all over again. Anguished shrieks of indescribable torment tore through the shattered air, mingling with the relentless sound of the drums, still pounding out the deafening four beat rhythm of death.

"Oh gods," Tejana cried, tears of abhorrence running unchecked down her face as she saw Rassilon's contorted face changing over and over again. "It's accelerated regeneration sickness. They're all going to die!"

Tejana had been a soldier once - she had borne countless atrocities during the Time War, including the pitiless, brutal slaughter of the entire population of Trion by the Daleks before her eyes. She was no coward. But she had never seen anything which horrified her more than the remorseless butchery visited on her people by the ghostly Neverwere. Unable to bear the gruesome sight any longer, she turned her head away, hiding her face in Jack's shoulder, her hands over her ears in a vain attempt to muffle the awful sounds. Jack stood like a statue carved from stone, eyes wide in a waking nightmare as he witnessed the fiendish retribution of the Time Wraiths.

As if by contrast, the Master watched with a faint cruel smile on his face, his arms crossed, his feet casually apart in a relaxed stance, completely unmoved by the carnage surrounding him.

"Die, Rassilon!" he hissed. "Feel my revenge and _die_!"

This was the Master's ultimate payback for all that had been taken from him. This was his justice, his judgement, his long-awaited day of reckoning. One by one, the Time Lords came to the end of their remaining regenerations. One by one, their rich ceremonial garments collapsed in on themselves as their final forms disintegrated into a fine, grey, ash-like powder.

With one culminating, discordant shriek, the flesh of Rassilon – the first Lord President of Gallifrey and the last - withered and decomposed, his husk-like body anatomising into granulated dust.

Like a rippling mirage, the Assembly Chamber of the High Council of Gallifrey hazed and shimmered, transforming back into the ancient grassy amphitheatre carved deep into the Isle of Avalon. Abruptly, the formidable sound of the drums skittered away into a deathly silence.

Implacably, his eyes as hard as flint, the Master walked over to the opulent red robes lying emptily on the ground and spat on them.

"And this time, stay dead!"

In the still air, his contemptuous tone was as final as the doors of hell slamming shut.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Author's Note: Hi to my reviewers for the last chapter - MayFairy, Omniac, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei and babybluepineapple. I seem to have lost a few reviewers lately (a message there for me perhaps, LOL - as in, people are thinking, if they can't say anything nice, they won't say anything at all, maybe?) That being the case, it's particularly nice to hear from you guys, you always cheer me up. Anyway, near the end now, so have to keep slogging on. Onwards and upwards!**_

_**Murray Gold and his terribly sad soundtrack to the Doctor Who episode "The End of Time", which I have been listening to on my MP3 player, are totally to blame for this chapter, I take no responsibility whatsoever. Murray - you rock!**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER TWENTY ONE**

The air was thick and oppressive, almost choking in its weight. The cessation of the drums had left behind a festering, brutal silence, which was almost more terrible than the pulsating beat it had replaced. Even though there were no clouds in the sky, the moon had inexplicably disappeared and the night was suddenly starless, unrelieved blackness swirling around the three companions as they hurried to the Doctor's side. He lay motionless within his bonds, so still, so very still, his face lifeless and unresponsive, his eyes closed.

"Oh gods!" Tejana said in anguish, carefully removing the now-loose golden sensor band from around his head. "Oh no. No, no, no! What has Rassilon done to him?"

Jack and the Master tore at the buckled leather straps which held him, struggling to release him. Gently, they lifted him down from the chair and laid him on the ground, his head in Tejana's lap. He looked so young in the dim light of the lantern, so absurdly young, hardly more than a boy. His face was bone-white, with dark shadows etched deeply under his eyes. His lips were dry and cracked, a thin, scarlet ribbon of blood running from the corner of his mouth. His breathing was shallow and laboured, rattling eerily in his chest.

Frantically, Tejana laid one hand on his forehead and the other on his chest, using the psychic link to ascertain the damage. What she found made the bottom drop right out of her world, her mind recoiling and screaming in a torrent of absolute grief.

"He'll regenerate, right?" Jack said desperately, seeing the devastated look on her face. "I mean, that's what Time Lords do. He's going to be OK, isn't he?"

Dazedly, Tejana shook her head, her eyes burning in agony. "He can't regenerate," she faltered, her voice catching sharply in her throat. "He's broken inside. He's got nothing left. The Time-fire...the Time-fire has destroyed him, beyond the capacity of his body to heal."

"You mean...he's dying?" Jack stuttered, the sheer enormity of the idea paralysing his brain. "No...that's not possible."

Tejana could not answer, she had no voice, her misery was too profound. The Master crouched down beside her, his hand comfortingly on her shoulder, his face tight with painfully suppressed emotion. Centuries of playing cat and mouse with the Doctor across the Universe, hundreds of years of constantly pitting their wits against each other. He had thought it would last forever. How could it end like this?

The Doctor moaned, his hand twitching as though he was trying to grasp something beyond his reach.

"Doctor? _Doctor_?" Tejana called.

At the sound of his name, his eye-lids fluttered open, his blue-green gaze dull and glassy, so different from the eccentric, lively intelligence which had sparkled there such a short time ago.

"Tejana?" he murmured hoarsely.

"I'm here!" she told him, tears on her cheeks even as she forced a bright tone into her voice. "I've got you."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he said. "I failed. I couldn't stop him."

"It's OK. He's gone. They've all gone. It's over."

He coughed weakly, more blood trickling from his ruined lungs. "No, you don't understand...it's too late, too late for all of us...the Temporal Nucleus was here on Earth...he destroyed it when he brought the Time Lords back. He's shredded the Web of Time beyond repair."

A chill chased up Tejana's spine. Her eyes flew to the Master's as the stunning realisation dawned on them. That strange, loathsome black obelisk, shattered now into endless particles...it had been the Temporal Nucleus all along. The pain and confusion in the air, the heaviness of the shadows, the darkening of the moon and the stars...Tejana had assumed she was sensing her father's imminent death. But suddenly they both knew it was more, so much more. It wasn't just the Doctor who was dying, it was the entire Universe. The threads of Time were slowly unravelling. Starting from the very beginning, history was being progressively erased and soon there would be nothing left.

A jolt of bitter irony struck Tejana like a slap across the face, the mocking echo of her own voice resounding in her mind: _Don't you just love it when everybody lives?_

"What does he mean?" Jack asked. "What was too late?"

"We were," the Master said harshly. "We stopped Rassilon too late. He's destroyed the Temporal Nucleus, the anchor-point of the Web of Time, and there's no way to replace it. The Web is already disintegrating, from the inside out. We're all dead."

"Sorry...Tejana...so sorry..." the Doctor muttered, his mind wandering.

"Sshhhhh!" Tejana soothed, numbly stroking his untidy brown hair. "Don't try to talk."

"No...the Master told me...about what happened when I was exiled to...Earth," he gasped. "I didn't know. I thought you were _safe_ on Gallifrey."

She winced. "Oh, don't, please don't! It doesn't matter, really it doesn't...it was so long ago."

"It does. Of course it does," he retorted. "Left you...so many times. Trion...wasn't there when the Daleks came. Wasn't there...when you fell into...E-Space."

"Stop it!" she said tearfully. "Don't you understand? _None_ of that matters! You're my father, the only one I've ever needed or wanted! I would never change a second of the time we've had together. You and I...throughout the whole of Time and Space...we were fantastic, brilliant...magnificent!"

The Doctor gave a crooked, painful smile. "We were, weren't we?"

Then he closed his eyes for a moment and his hand reached out and unexpectedly grasped the Master's. The other Time Lord tensed in surprise, but didn't pull away.

"So sorry for everything that happened...to you...Koschei. So sorry...it all went so very wrong," the Doctor sighed, his voice faint now. "Wish...it could have been different...for you...for us...my friend."

The Master sat silently, his eyes clouded with bitter-sweet memories from long ago, his throat choked with regret. But his hand tightened convulsively around the Doctor's...forever his best enemy, forever his best friend.

"Jack," the Doctor whispered. "I...treated you badly. Sorry...you were...one of the best men I ever knew."

"Because of you!" Jack answered fiercely. "Everything I am, it's all because you changed me, Doc!"

The Doctor gave a wheezing chuckle. "I keep...telling you...don't call me...Doc!"

Without warning, a savage tremor of pain wracked his thin frame from head to foot in a spasm of agony and his body went limp, as though all his bones had been broken.

"Doctor?" Tejana cried fearfully, feeling the life steadily ebbing from him. "Father!"

The light flickered briefly back into his eyes and he gave her one last smile.

"I love you," he said in Gallifreyan. "Daughter."

Then the cold wind blew over them and, with one final shudder, he died in her arms.

Tejana kissed his forehead reverently, tears pouring down her face. "I love you. And I will see you again soon," she promised, knowing that - even here, protected as they were at the heart of coincidence - it would not be long before the erasure of Time reached them.

Grief-stricken, she raised her head and looked at the Master. He was holding his free hand out in front of him, studying it with almost dispassionate curiosity. With a sharp pang, she realised that it was already less substantial than it had been, the outline of his fingers less pronounced, the skin becoming transparent and incorporeal.

"Looks like that bastard Rassilon got me after all," he said with a resigned note in his voice. "I always said he was a tosser."

Tejana managed to give him a watery smile, remembering how she had laughed at his joking comment in The Matrix. "At least you got him first," she said comfortingly.

His brown eyes met her blue ones and she caught her breath at the unprecedented tenderness she saw there. In that one transcendent moment, she suddenly saw deep within him that other Koschei from the Could-Have-Been-King's vision.

"My beautiful Ana," he said huskily. "You and me, huh? The Greatest Story Never Told. Who'd have thought?"

"Yeah," she responded softly. "Who'd have thought?"

He was fading rapidly now, his whole body becoming illusory, dream-like. Then his mouth found hers and he was kissing her. But this kiss was different, so different, from the ones he had given her in the past. For the first time, there was no force, no dominance, no desire to take or to own. Instead, the caress was warm and loving, conveying all that he could never put into words, resonant with all he could have been – all they could have been – had it not been for the drums. She closed her eyes, giving herself up to the sweet ache of it, matching him emotion for emotion, knowing he was saying goodbye. She felt the pressure of his lips growing softer and softer as his body became less and less tangible, until eventually she could not feel him at all. When she opened her eyes, he was gone altogether.

At that same instant, she felt the weight of the Doctor's head disappear from her lap and she knew that he too had been erased. She was alone with Jack, the psychic link echoing and empty in her mind, like a dusty old house abandoned by its occupants long ago. Trembling, determined to be dignified at the end, she climbed to her feet.

_I will see you again soon, Koschei...I have to believe that there is something more for us beyond this!_

"They were the same age," she said, looking over at Jack, her voice brittle and strained. "Funny, isn't it? All those centuries fighting across the constellations and they end up being erased from Time simultaneously. My turn next, I expect."

Sure enough, she could sense herself beginning to dissolve, her limbs etoliating, becoming lighter and more frangible with every passing second, her life and colour leeching away into the unrelenting air. Jack took two vehement steps towards her and seized her forcefully by the shoulders.

"No, this can't be happening! You can't just give up like this. You're a Time Lady. Do something!"

"_Rage, rage against the dying of the light?_" Tejana smiled sorrowfully. "I wish I could, Jack. But I'm a Child of Time, a creature of flux. Without the fixed point of the Temporal Nucleus to anchor the Web, there can be no Time. And without Time, I am nothing. It was always the eternal paradox of the Universe – the flux of Time abhorring the immutability of the Nucleus, but each unable to exist without the other, all in perfect balance."

"There must be something we can do, some way to repair the Nucleus!"

Tejana shook her head. "It's gone, completely destroyed. This is where it ends. All we can do is say goodbye."

Roughly, his eyes full of tears, Jack pulled her into his arms and clutched her tightly against his chest, as if just by holding her hard enough and long enough he could stave off the inevitable.

"Thank you, for saving the Master earlier," she said in a low voice. "I know he probably would never have done the same for you."

Jack gave a harsh, bitter laugh. "Doesn't that make me the better man?"

She reached up and stroked his face, her slender fingers almost evanescent now, her touch as light as gossamer. "It makes you an amazing man. But then, you've always been amazing, Jack...always."

Her delicate features were becoming more and more translucent as she spoke, her eyes two fathomless pools of blue in the white blur of her face, the long dark hair shimmering into a shadowy haze as she began to vanish.

"Guess this is it. See ya in hell, Jack," she whispered, using their old good luck saying one last time.

"Not if I see you first!" he returned brokenly, only to find that he was talking to thin air.

His arms were empty. She was already gone.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Author's Note: Hoo boy, a whole great big pile of wonderful people to thank this time, so here goes: soro1010, xxTeam-Masterxx, MayFairy, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, Omniac, babybluepineapple, jazz-sparks (x 2), and KoscheithePianist, thank you all so much for your lovely reviews!**_

_**Special hi to Avelo and iLuvTwiBoyz, my two new reviewers, so happy to have you on board!**_

_**Also, massive special hi to Aietradaea: thanks for both your reviews and the chat, you are so awesome!**_

_**Hope you all like this chapter.** **XXXX**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 22**

For a moment, Jack stood stunned under the starless sky, unable to believe that they were all gone. The freezing cold wind blew all around him, billowing and swirling his long coat. The endless night was coming - even he, who was not a Time Lord, could feel it now. The decay of Time was almost complete. He knew it, just as surely as he knew that, of all the countless and astonishingly varied creatures that had once existed throughout the Universe, he was the only living thing left.

He felt like he was standing on a small, lonely island in a sea of darkness and the tide was coming in. Lifting his chin, he stood straight and tall, waiting for the inevitable. With Tejana and the Doctor and everything else he loved already gone, all he wanted was to allow the oblivion to take him as soon as possible and just get it over with. Stretching his hands out before him, he examined them, just as the Master had done before him. However, unlike the Master, he saw no signs that he was fading. Both of his large, capable hands remained as solid and substantial as they had always been.

A cold worm of fear turned in his stomach. _Why wasn't he evaporating, like everything else?_

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the tenebrous shadows were pierced and cast aside by a roiling blast of golden light. Jack, whose vision had become attuned to the dark since arriving on the Isle of Avalon, staggered backwards in shock, instinctively raising his arm to protect his eyes. Vaguely, he was aware of a figure walking towards him, silhouetted against the dazzling penumbra of light.

Forcing his reluctant eyes to focus, he managed to determine that the figure was female, dressed in a red jacket and black trousers. Soft, blonde, shoulder-length hair floated around her head like a halo and her eyes blazed with golden energy.

Jack stared in astonishment, easily recognising the woman in front of him, but knowing all too well that what he was seeing was totally impossible.

"_Rose_?" he questioned incredulously.

The fiery golden eyes fixed on him, the penetrating gaze seeming to bore weirdly into his very soul, the rippling light surrounding them both in an incandescent nimbus of glory.

"I am the Bad Wolf," the woman answered in a serene voice, liquid and melodious, completely devoid of Rose's usual London accent. "I bring life, Jack Harkness. I brought life to you."

"It was you," he gasped, his mind precipitated back to events that had occurred almost two centuries ago in his time-line. "You were the entity that possessed Rose back on Satellite Five, when she looked into the Heart of the TARDIS. You're the one who brought me back to life. But how can you be here now?"

"With the power of the Time Vortex, I create myself. I scatter myself throughout Time and Space," the mysterious entity responded. "I am the Bad Wolf. I see all that is...all that was...all that ever could be."

"You're a projection, sent into the future by Rose that day on Satellite Five," Jack exclaimed, suddenly understanding. "She...you...knew all this stuff with Rassilon was going to happen!"

The Bad Wolf nodded. "I saw this day - the day the Doctor would ultimately fail, unable by his very nature to combat the loss of the Temporal Nucleus, and thus the Universe would fall."

"Tejana said that the Time Lords are creatures of flux, that's why they were unable to repair the Nucleus."

"The Doctor's daughter spoke truly. The Nucleus was created in the dawn of history by the original Time Lord Council of Three, using the singular forces of a black hole. But once the Web of Time was put in place, all future Time Lords became bound by its constraints from that moment forward. Thus the three who survived the Time War were powerless to prevent the unravelling of Time itself once the Nucleus was destroyed," the Bad Wolf replied calmly. "But you are not subject to the constraints of Time, Jack Harkness. You are a fixed point, immutable and unchanging. This was my gift to you. This was my gift of life to the Universe."

"You're saying you made me an immortal for this? That this was the reason all along? _I'm_ the one who's supposed to save everything?"

"You are the only one who can," she told him. "And I would have my Doctor safe."

"No argument here!" Jack said fervently. "What do I have to do?"

"Take his place in the machine," the entity sighed. "But you must hurry, Jack. Your time grows short."

With that, there was a shimmer of auroral light and the projection of Rose vanished, leaving Jack once more alone.

"I'm getting really, _really_ tired of people doing that today!" Jack muttered to himself.

As if in reply, the ground shuddered beneath his feet. A gale of ice-cold wind streamed into his face and through his hair, until he could barely breathe. He could feel the soul-destroying blackness of the void closing in on him, the end of everything only moments away. Acting completely on instinct, he seized the golden sensor band, abandoned where the Doctor's body had lain, and rammed it down on his own head. A blast of lightning seemed to spear directly through his brain, impaling him like a butterfly on a pin. All his neurons seemed to explode into a glittering tapestry of heightened awareness, stretching out into eternity. Standing at the centre of the Universe, immovable and unchangeable as stone, perpetual and indestructible, he could see the sparkling, nebulous fragments of Time shattering, splintering, scattering, drifting ethereally away into the Void, to be lost forever, erasing reality as they went.

Gathering all his breath into his lungs, Jack gave one, single, mighty shout. "STOP!"

And at his command, the whole of Time and Space froze.

* * *

He was floating in blackness. There were no stars, no planets, no suns, just the endless darkness, from which even the memory of light had vanished.

The silence was massive, deafening, absolute, beyond anything he had ever imagined.

_So this was the end of Time. _Jack felt a wave of overwhelming, crushing despair. It seemed that the curse of his immortality meant that he was destined to outlive even the destruction of reality itself. Surely, there could be no greater hell than to be the only thing left in existence after the apocalypse, to live on alone in eternal nothingness when everything else was gone, with no hope of death or redemption.

_Yeah, thanks very much, Rose – great plan that was! _he thought dully. _I didn't save a thing and now I'm all that's left._

But then he heard the voice, calling his name. "Jack? Jack?"

At first he thought it was Rose returning, as if she had somehow been summoned by his loss of hope. But there was no gleam of golden light through the darkness, no illumination of any sort. And, with a stab of pain, he realised that the voice, whilst very familiar, did not belong to Rose or even the Bad Wolf.

"Tejana? Is that you?" he responded tentatively, wondering if he had gone completely insane and was aurally hallucinating. "Where are you? It's so dark, I can't see anything."

"I'm right here, with you," she said gently in his ear. "And they say that, in the beginning, it is always dark."

Suddenly, he could feel her, tight within the circle of his arms, pressed against him just as she had been seconds before she had been erased from Time. He could even smell the honeysuckle scent of her hair. Luxuriating in her softness, Jack held her even closer, convinced now that he was off his rocker, totally out to lunch.

_Still, if it was a hallucination, it was a damn good one!_

"The beginning?" he queried, hardly even daring to hope that she would answer. "What do you mean, the beginning? And how can you even be here? I _saw_ you erased!"

Tejana laughed joyfully. "The Universe is reforming, Jack. You're a fixed point in Time - when you put on the sensor band and interfaced with manipulator, the outward temporal explosion was halted and the splinters began to be attracted inwards again, to orbit around you. Time is recreating, healing itself, with you as its Nucleus. Now all will be as it was before Rassilon disturbed the Web of Time. Thanks to you, this is the beginning, not the end."

A great tiredness seemed to take hold of Jack. He felt so heavy, so sleepy. "So everything will be OK?" he asked confusedly, his voice slurring with exhaustion.

"Oh yes," she answered tranquilly, nestling her head against his chest. "Listen. Can you hear it?"

Surging through the silence, he heard a paean of beautiful, haunting melody, as though a heavenly choir were singing.

"The Song of the Universe has begun again," Tejana told him. "The Ood are singing of you. Captain Jack Harkness, an impossible thing, the very Lodestone of Time."

And Jack listened, his weary soul filling with peace, content just to shut his eyes and drift with Tejana safe in his arms, here at the beginning of all things.

* * *

A long while later, Tejana sat motionless in the Torchwood office, watching Jack sleep on the ratty old couch, holding his hand in her own. Her eyes played curiously over his unheeding face. Despite all that had happened, he looked unchanged. The thick, soft, tousled dark hair; the superbly-sculpted bone structure; the faint frown lines carved into his brow; the strong, dimpled chin; the wide, mobile mouth she had kissed so often, made for a teasing grin, but equally capable of tightening into a grim, purposeful line. _Handsome Jack_, as the Master had always mockingly called him.

Her best friend's face, so loved, so familiar and yet now so fundamentally different. The man whose hand she held was no longer just Jack, he was the Temporal Nucleus, the very centre of the Web of Time, the entity which anchored the entire fabric of Time and Space. The enormity of the concept was almost too much to grasp, even for a Time Lady.

The door swung open and the Doctor stepped into the room. Tejana glanced up at him with a smile, drinking him in with her gaze, his painful death scene on the Isle of Avalon still agonisingly fresh in her mind. Thank the gods, he had been fully restored once the Web of Time had healed itself, his blue-green eyes sparkling with their accustomed energy, his step as springy and as enthusiastic as ever, his hands behind his back.

"How is he?" he asked, nodding at Jack.

"Still sleeping," she replied.

"Ah...well, it'll probably take a while for him to adjust."

"What will happen to him, Doctor? Will...will he be OK?"

The Doctor came to stand beside her, looking down at the unconscious Captain, his face serious. "I honestly don't know, Tejana. It's not like there's any precedent for this. I have no idea what's going to happen."

"But...the Face of Boe died," she protested. "Millions of years in the future, but eventually he died. And Time didn't end. How can that be?"

"We don't know for sure that Jack was ever the Face of Boe, it might just be a coincidence of name," the Doctor replied thoughtfully. "Or perhaps something happens to release him from his position as the Nucleus before then. Or perhaps he didn't actually die...perhaps we just didn't wait around long enough to see him reanimate. There are endless possibilities, that's the beauty of the causal nexus."

Tejana gave a slow nod. "Do you think the Bad Wolf knew all along? Do you think this was why he was made immortal? Because this was his destiny?"

"I suppose that depends if you believe in destiny," the Doctor smiled.

Tejana thought of herself and the Master and the vision of the Could-Have-Been-King, deep within the bowels of the Isle of Avalon.

"I believe that sometimes the Universe corrects itself to preserve the things that are meant to be," she said softly. "If that counts as destiny."

The Doctor looked at her sharply, as if sensing that her words had a double meaning. But Tejana didn't elaborate. Perhaps one day she would tell the Doctor the truth about the Could-Have-Been-King, but not today.

"And Rassilon? And the other Time Lords?" she asked instead. "The Army of the Neverwere wiped them out _after _the threads of the Web began to unravel. If Jack has recreated Time from the moment before the Nucleus was compromised using the Manipulator, what happened to them?"

"The Time Lock was never breached," the Doctor answered. "The Time Lords are all safely back inside, just as alive and just as dead as they were before. None of it ever happened. As for Rassilon, he was resurrected long before there was any tampering with the Nucleus, so theoretically he should still be here, alive somewhere on Earth."

"But the Master's drums have disappeared again! So he _must_ be dead!" Tejana exclaimed anxiously, deeply disturbed by the Doctor's unsatisfactory answer.

_Oh stars, for the Master's sake and for mine, please let him be dead!_

Her father shrugged ruefully. "Just one more thing I don't know the answer to."

For a moment there was silence. Then Tejana leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Jack's unresponsive lips.

"Will you say goodbye to him for me?" she asked, gently placing Jack's hand back on his chest. "And to Martha and Amy as well?"

The Doctor stiffened in anger. "Don't you think they deserve to hear that from you? Jack especially."

"You know that I'm hopeless at goodbyes," she said stubbornly, turning her face aside. "I inherited that from you."

"You're not intending to come back, are you?"

She shook her head. "No, I think it would be better if we didn't."

"Better for who? For the people who love you...or for the Master?"

Tejana sighed. She really didn't want to have this argument all over again. "Better for everyone," she responded evasively. Climbing to her feet, she kissed the Doctor on the cheek. "At least this time I'm saying goodbye to you."

"Yeah, for what it's worth, since you won't listen to a word I say!" he retorted, his tone fraught with sheer frustration. "Tejana, for the last time, you've known the Master all your life, you're well aware of all the things he's done. You were there when he killed Nyssa's step-mother and her father, when he destroyed her entire planet! You were there when killed Tegan's aunt and when he nearly destroyed the Universe at Logopolis. And again, on _The Valiant_, when he decimated the Earth's population, tortured Jack, not to mention what he did to me with the Lazarus technology. You've even tried to kill him yourself more than once! He _ate _human beings in the wasteland on Earth, for Gallifrey's sake! And that's just the tip of the iceberg of the atrocities he's committed over the years. What in all of that could possibly make you want to go back to him?"

Tejana hesitated. Logically, she supposed that now would be a good time to tell her father all about the Could-Have-Been-King and the Untempered Schism and all that she and the Master should have been, if it weren't for Rassilon's machinations. Perhaps then she could make the Doctor understand and he would let her go without a fight. But it was such an involved story and she was so tired. It had been a long, terrible day. All she wanted to do was to go back to the Master's TARDIS, cuddle up to his warmth in the big white bed and drift off into the contented, dreamless sleep she always experienced when she was with him. So instead of pouring the whole tale out to the Doctor, she chose to speak the four, honest words she knew he least wanted to hear.

"Because I love him."

With that, before he could even reply, she walked quietly out of the door and closed it behind her.

The Doctor sighed deeply, guessing that this was all the goodbye he was going to get. He was not really surprised, he was far too well-acquainted with his daughter's headstrong nature. As she said, she had inherited it from him in the first place. Bringing his hands out from behind his back, he allowed his eyes to run absently over the TARDIS component he had been concealing from her.

"I thought you might say that," he said wryly, moving to follow her out the door, mentally girding himself for the fireworks which he knew were about to occur.

Behind him, Jack's eyes opened, focussing intently on the Time Lord's back. In that one brief instant, his staring irises glowed eerily with pure white Time-fire, before reverting to their normal blue colouring. Then his eye-lids fell shut again, as if nothing had happened.


	23. Chapter 23

**_Author's Note: So, here we are again, folks, the final chapter in this particular story. Another journey is over and my "ship of dreams" has docked again for the time being. And yep, you guessed it, the rest is another story and shall be told another time!_**

**_Thanks to the following people for reviewing the previous chapter: jazz-sparks, iLuvTwiboys, babybluepineapple, MayFairy, Omniac, Avelo, Kaylie S and Guessswho. Also, thank you to every single person who took the time to review this fic at any stage, you are all wonderful.  
_**

_**Hopefully you all enjoy this last chapter!**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 23**

The Master stood in the console room of his TARDIS, looking down at the empty slot in the console where his temporal limiter used to be, an amused smile playing around his lips.

_Oh Doctor, you should know better than to try to trick a trickster, _he thought mockingly. _And now the next move in the game is mine._

For a moment, he closed his eyes, listening to the blissful silence in his head. He had no idea whether Rassilon was alive or dead. In fact, he wasn't even sure that the Lord President could be permanently killed, since so many of the ancient Gallifreyan legends claimed that he was immortal. The Master didn't really care. The drums were gone, his mind was crystal clear again. He had been dancing to Rassilon's accursed beat all his life – now it was his turn to call the tune. He knew what he wanted and nothing in the Universe was going to stop him from getting it.

Firstly, he wanted Ana. _Beautiful Ana. _She was his, born to be a part of him. And he was determined that nobody was going to take what was his, ever again. No matter what the Doctor or Captain Freak or Martha Jones or anyone else did, he would never let Ana go. He thought of his hand-print, seared with his life-energy into her ankle like a brand. _His_ brand, the sign of his ownership, the mark of the Master. They were bound together now and Ana would belong to him until Time itself ground to a halt.

But he wanted even more than that. He had never realised it before, until the Could-Have-Been-King had shown him the truth of his past, but now he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt. More than anything, he wanted a son. Not just any son – _Ana's son_. Their child would be a true-born Time Lord, the blood of two great Gallifreyan families mingling in his veins, a direct descendant of both the House of Oakdown and the House of Lungbarrow.

The Master conjured up an image of Ana rounded and soft with pregnancy and then another of her holding his son in her arms. He felt a deep surge of satisfaction and possessiveness at the prospect. It would happen, he would make sure of it. His child would want for nothing. Everything that had been taken from him, his son would have. A home, a family, position, inheritance...the Master would literally hand him the Universe on a silver platter.

He and Ana, the Time Lord and his Lady, Master and Mistress of the Universe...oh, he _liked _the sound of that!

It was all there for the taking, a shining future at his finger-tips. The only stumbling block was Ana herself. He knew she would never agree to what he had in mind. In time, he would make her understand that he knew best and she would learn to obey. But to start with, he would need to play it very carefully to ensure that he didn't lose her.

At that moment, the TARDIS door opened and Tejana entered. She looked upset and he guessed that she had just been on the receiving end of another lecture from her father. Seeing him standing at the console watching her, she gave him a bright smile.

"So, ready to go?" she asked. "This time, can we go somewhere where they have lots of great food? There's got to be a restaurant planet somewhere, right? I am so totally starving! Jack has absolutely nothing to eat in the Hub except chocolate and I think I've had enough of that for one day."

The Master didn't answer, deliberately averting his eyes from her.

Tejana frowned and climbed the stairs towards him. "Koschei? Are you all right?" Then, when he still didn't answer, she asked in an alarmed voice, "Oh gods, the drums aren't back again, are they?"

"No, they're gone," he replied shortly.

"Then what's wrong?"

He took a deep breath and then glanced at her sideways. "I think you should stay here, with the Doctor and Handsome Jack."

He saw her tense, as if he had just stabbed her with a knife. "_What?_"

"Ana, I'll never be him. The Koschei you saw in that vision...he's dead. Rassilon killed him when he was eight years old," he said harshly. "So, if that's what you're expecting me to be now the drums are gone, forget it. I've been the Master for centuries now, I don't know how to be anything else."

"I don't expect that," she answered softly, reaching out to take his hand. "I'll never be her either, the dream-Tejana. I'm not sure I would even want to be, now. Neither of us can go back – but the future is ours to choose...together."

"Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Believe me, I'm sure."

The Master pulled her close, his hands gripping her wrists tightly, intentionally trying to intimidate her. "This is your last chance, Ana. You can leave now if you want to, I won't try to stop you. But if you choose to stay, there won't be anywhere in the Universe you can go that I won't find you and bring you back."

"Then do it!" she said fiercely. "Because there's nowhere in the Universe I want to be, unless you're there with me!"

The Master's eyes glittered with triumph and he brought his mouth down on hers in a deep, rough, demanding kiss. He felt her hands slide to the back of his neck, pulling him even closer, her mouth opening under his instinctively and unquestioningly. All at once, desire was raging through him, threatening to sweep away all coherent thought.

"Tell me you belong to me," he said, fighting for control, knowing he had to stick to his plan. He had to get her to openly commit herself to him. "I need to hear you say it."

"I belong to you," she repeated, shuddering under the caress of his hands.

"Use my name."

For a moment, she hesitated. But then she capitulated, at last giving him what he wanted. "I belong to you...Master."

That nearly broke him, nearly made him forget everything. All he wanted to do was to push her down on the floor and finish what they had started. But instead, he forced himself to pull back, despite her moan of protest.

"I know, sweetheart," he said soothingly, his own breathing ragged. "But I think your dear old Dad is waiting for a word with us."

Sure enough, on the view-screen the Doctor was clearly visible, sitting just outside their TARDIS, his arms and legs crossed casually as he patiently waited.

"What?" she said hazily, her eyes unfocussed, still lost in the pleasure the Master had aroused in her. "I already said goodbye. What more is there to talk about?"

"I'm guessing...this," he answered, indicating the empty space in the TARDIS console.

"Our temporal limiter is missing," she said in a puzzled voice. Then a blaze of temper lit her eyes as it suddenly dawned on her what was going on. "_Our temporal limiter is missing_!" she snarled furiously. "Oooh, is he ever going to get an earful!"

With that, she spun on her heel and stormed towards the door. Unhurriedly, the Master followed, his mouth curved in a small smile of anticipation.

* * *

The Doctor watched them emerge from the TARDIS. As expected, Tejana looked absolutely furious. The Master, on the other hand, did not look in the least bit bothered. Indeed, if the Doctor had been pressed to describe his arch-enemy's expression he would have said...smug.

"You stole our temporal limiter!" Tejana accused angrily, marching straight up to confront him. "Give it back, right now!"

"No," the Doctor replied calmly. "Whichever way you like to spin it, the Master just slaughtered the entire High Council of Time Lords. Nothing has changed since _The Valiant._ It's still much too dangerous to allow him to wander around the Universe wreaking havoc wherever he goes."

"Technically speaking, that wasn't actually me," the Master said mildly, leaning casually against the outside of the TARDIS. "Not to mention the fact that you killed them first on Gallifrey, something which you conveniently prefer to forget."

The Doctor ignored him and continued as if he hadn't spoken. "I've made my decision. Master, you'll come with me in my TARDIS, where I can keep an eye on you. Tejana, you'll stay here on Earth with Jack."

"_What_?" his daughter spat, almost incandescent with rage. "I will not!"

Unexpectedly, the Master threw back his head and laughed.

"What's so funny?" the Doctor demanded.

"You do know that I've got no intention of giving Ana up, don't you?" the Master returned mockingly. "Or becoming your prisoner for the rest of my life?"

"You have no choice," the Doctor told him. "The Hub is still in lock down and your TARDIS is out of action. There's nowhere for you to go."

"Oh, but there's always a choice, Doctor," said the Master. "And the best part about this one is that you forced me to make it. Now whatever happens will be your fault."

"What are you talking about? What will be my fault?"

The Master laughed again and slid his arm securely around Tejana's waist. In his other hand, he held a small button-like device, which he displayed triumphantly to the Doctor.

"You know, Miss Jones was quite right...you really, really should never have let me anywhere near the Rift!"

With that, he pressed the button. He and Tejana shimmered and wavered and disappeared for a few brief seconds. When they reappeared, the Doctor blinked in shock. The Master with the blonde hair and black hoodie had been replaced by a Master with brown hair, wearing an immaculately-tailored suit. The Tejana with the loose black curls, cotton jacket, blue jeans and trainers had been replaced by a Tejana wearing a long, tightly woven plait, black leather waistcoat over a white long-sleeved T-shirt, fitted black trousers and black boots. Her hands were tightly manacled in front of her. The two of them looked around in a dazed and puzzled fashion, as if they had no idea where they were. Suddenly they both seemed to notice the Doctor, standing nearby and watching them. For a moment, they stared at him, apparently without recognition, as though they had never before seen him in his new regeneration.

Then, simultaneously, they both said incredulously, "_DOCTOR_?"

"Oh, Master," the Doctor sighed wearily. "What have you done this time?"

* * *

Tejana shook her head in astonishment, sure she was seeing things. One minute she had been standing in the Hub, facing the Doctor, the next minute...she wasn't. Instead, she appeared to be in a dark, enclosed space of some kind. Both the Doctor and the Master had vanished and she was alone.

"What the _hell_ is going on now?" she exclaimed crossly.

Slowly, she turned in a circle, taking in her new surroundings as her eyes adjusted to the gloom. What she saw made her insides freeze in disbelief. This grotty little room was not strange to her. In fact, it was horribly, terrifyingly familiar.

"Oh no," she whispered. "Oh, no. It's not even _possible_! _The Valiant _was destroyed by the Daleks!"

And yet, against every logical argument, she knew without a doubt that she was standing in the prison cell she had occupied during The Year That Never Was, on board the mighty air-craft carrier _Valiant_. It was like some kind of sick joke, some sort of horrific de ja vu. She knew every inch of this room, every scanty piece of furniture, every mark on the walls, every crack in the ceiling. Even the musty, dank smell was familiar.

What could possibly have happened? Surely she hadn't slipped backwards in time? A Time Lord could never go back within his own time-line, it was strictly forbidden – it would cause a temporal paradox of catastrophic proportions for her to co-exist at the same point in time with her previous self. The Doctor had done it on a couple of occasions, but only in times of grave peril and with the full knowledge and permission of the High Council. But now that Gallifrey had been destroyed and the Time Lords were not available to control the causal nexus, such an act would result in universal destruction!

Trying not to panic, she leapt across to the narrow bunk, seizing the thin, lumpy pillow and tossing it aside. Sure enough, the incontrovertible evidence was staring her in the face. There on the wall at the head of the bed, etched with her own hand, were the marks she remembered, one for each day of her imprisonment, the only way she had been able to keep track of the time sliding by. With a chill, she realised that the marks tallied to approximately six months. Somehow, she had landed smack bang in the middle of The Year That Never Was.

Just then, the cell door opened and revealed the Master standing there. With a flood of relief, she saw his blonde hair and black hoodie and realised that this was her Koschei, the Master from her own time-line.

"Oh, thank the gods you're here," she cried, running to embrace him. "What in the name of Gallifrey is going on? This is _The Valiant_! We're back in The Year That Never Was!"

He laughed, playfully ruffling her hair. "I know. Good, isn't it?"

Tejana stiffened in shock and pulled away from him, suddenly understanding. "You did this, didn't you? Are you suicidal? The temporal paradox you'll cause could wipe out the Universe!"

"Have some faith, my beautiful Ana. I'm a genius, remember?" the Master smirked. "Reciprocal Temporal Displacement, made possible by a generous serving of Rift Energy. You and I are here, our previous selves are now in the future, at the Hub. Perfect exchange, no co-existence, therefore no chance of a paradox."

Tejana stared at him in horror. "Why are you doing this, Koschei?"

"Oh come _on_, Ana, you know why," he retorted, his face hardening. "This is my do-over, my second bite of the cherry. This time, things will be different. Forewarned is forearmed. There will be no manipulation of my satellites, no psychic wave from the Earth, no Tinkerbell moment for the Doctor. Now that I know everything that's going to happen, I can change it all. This time the Universe will be mine and no-one will be able to stop me."

"You can't!' she breathed. "After all we've just found out about Rassilon messing with the future by changing the past and now you want to do the same?"

"That's exactly the point!" he said harshly. "From now on, no-one decides my future but me!"

Moving like lightning, he seized her right wrist and snapped something in place before she could react. Glancing down, she saw it was a beautiful golden bracelet, exquisitely engraved with intricate Gallifreyan designs. Instantly she knew that its purpose was much more than decorative – in her mind, the psychic link winked out like it had never been, leaving her adrift on a sudden sea of confusion.

"Psi-inhibitor," the Master said matter-of-factly. "I can't risk you contacting the Doctor. Don't bother trying to remove it – the clasp has an isomorphic seal. No-one can take it off but me."

Then he reached into her pocket and swiftly extracted the laser screwdriver he had given her. "Oh, and I'll have that back too, just for now."

Her eyes flared with pure rage. "You're despicable!"

He laughed, seizing her chin and tilting her head up so that her defiant gaze clashed with his. "Did I ever tell you just how gorgeous you are when you're angry?" he taunted.

"Go to hell!" she spat.

Ignoring her words, he pulled her close and dropped his mouth to hers in a quick, hard kiss.

"The Doctor at my mercy, the Universe at my feet and you by my side. What more could I possibly ask for?" he said in apparent satisfaction. "You'll have to stay here for a while, where I know you can't get into any trouble. I'll be back soon. But right now, I've got a planet to run!"

With that, he turned and jauntily walked out the door, which was promptly closed behind him by the two black-clad guards stationed outside. Tejana looked helplessly around her, the claustrophobia she had suffered since her childhood on Gallifrey already constricting her breathing, the walls beginning to close in on her.

"Oh, you have to be kidding," she whispered, sinking down on to the edge of the bunk, her head in her hands. "You have _seriously _got to be kidding."

In the distance, she could hear the Master whistling "I Can't Decide" by the Scissor Sisters as he walked up the corridor.

And in that moment she knew that this was no joke. This was a living nightmare.

_**THE END**_

* * *

_**Author's Note **_

_**For the sequel to this fic, please read "Return to the Valiant".  
**_

_**SUMMARY: ******__The Master has used the Cardiff Rift to send himself and Tejana back to The Year That Never Was, with the aim of using his knowledge of events to change the outcome and conquer the Universe. But the Rift is very unstable and unpredictable. Unbeknown to the Master, something else has come through with them. And this time around, he just may not be the "biggest bad" on board The Valiant._  



End file.
